Tag Archives: Student Government

Open Educational Resources, Students

A student Perspective on Open Educational Resources (OER) and Course Materials Affordability

Leave a comment

This guest post is authored by Antara Gupta as part of our series in support of Open Education Week. Because we can’t limit ourselves to just one week, we’re excited to celebrate open education throughout the month of March. 

Antara Gupta is a third-year Neuroscience major also pursuing certificates in Spanish and Social Inequality, Health & Policy. She is an active member of the Natural Sciences Council, Health Science Scholars DEI Subcommittee, and Delta Epsilon Mu. In her free time, she loves cooking, thrifting, and exploring new coffee shops! 

College is celebrated as a haven for life-long learners. It is a bustling site for exploration and ingenuity, a place where you can discover something new about yourself or about the world. Students come in with big dreams such as: 

Learning how to start a business. 

Working in a renowned lab. 

Taking a class with a celebrated film professor. 

But ahead of many stands a looming barrier. Textbook fees. Lab fees. Online homework portal fees. On average, a full time undergraduate student spends approximately $740 on books and supplies during the academic year. Oftentimes, these funds are not advertised until after the student has already enrolled in a class. This puts low-income students at a significant disadvantage as they face apprehension that a class they enrolled for will potentially put them over their budget. How can we call such an environment a “bustling site for exploration” or a “haven for life-long learners” when concrete boundaries – on top of tuition – exist? 

Fortunately, these problems have been noticed by the UT community, and the university– along with multiple organizations–are doing their due diligence to make changes. S.B. 810 requires that UT identifies courses which have open educational resources (OER), and a list is generated on the Co-op website for each semester. 

But UT hasn’t just stopped there. As a member of the Natural Sciences Council (NSC), I remember being introduced to the initial versions of S.R. 1808, a bill to directly identify OER classes on the course schedule. As someone privileged enough for additional class fees to not be a major concern when deciding my semester schedule, it was eye-opening to learn about and consider the struggles that many other students go through. I was shocked that we had not implemented something like this already. However, NSC along with other college councils took steps to change this and voted in favor of the bill. With the implementation of this bill, any class with a total cost of less than $45 will now be identified on the course schedule as providing OER. This initiative will make open educational resources more transparent and accessible by allowing students to skip the process of searching for such classes through the Co-op website or through their own research. 

S.R. 1911 has further incentivized OER classes by supporting the creation of a University-Wide OER Faculty Award Program for professors who provide low-cost or free materials for their classes. Additionally, to continue dialogue and create an open forum for discussion, the UT Austin OER Working Group meets periodically to discuss current issues and initiatives related to OER. They invite anyone (students, staff, and faculty) to come and provide input during the meetings. Learn about how to join if you’re interested in getting involved. 

UT has made strides in improving access to education for our university students. Through open education week, we are able to celebrate the progress and highlight faculty who have been integral in this process. However, our work here is not done. As we continue on our journey, we must remember that education – especially for tuition-paying university students – must be treated as a right, not a privilege. 

Want to learn more about OER and opportunities to advocate for course materials affordability? Contact Ashley Morrison, Tocker Open Education Librarian (ashley.morrison@austin.utexas.edu)

Services

Stay Safe Out There

*

If you’ve recently been in or around PCL (and you’re a college-age student at UT), you’ve probably noticed the increased activity, especially in the hours between midnight and 4 a.m. Those late-night denizens of the central branch library at the university are a result of the expanded 24/5 service — 24-hour, 5 day-a-week — that went into effect in mid-October as the result of work by Student Government to raise the necessary funding.

While those late hours are a good thing for the students who need a place to put in dedicated study time (or for those who waited until the eleventh hour to get started), it also means that individuals will need to traverse the campus to get to and from the library in the middle of the night, a less than optimal prospect.

Student Government, however, was also able to improve this situation.

The organization developed SURE Walk, a student-run volunteer group that provides walks to and from campus to students, faculty and staff of the university, with the help of both male and female student volunteers selected from university sanctioned organizations across the campus. You can read more about it here.

The program has existed for a few years now, but SG recognized that the bulk of increases in requests would likely come from the space they fought to keep open, so they’ve decided to move the operation to the place that makes the most sense, and will be working out of the PCL, providing an extra measure of safety (and relief) to students (and parents).

SG representatives will have a small kick-off party tonight (11/14/12) at 8 p.m. in the UFCU room at the PCL, so come out and support them for making life a little safer on campus.

News

Money, Meet Mouth

PCL will open for 24-hour service in October.

No one can claim that our student leaders are filling token positions.

Student Government President Thor Lund and VP Wills Brown campaigned last year on two primary platform positions, one of which had direct bearing on the Libraries: 24-hour service at the Perry-Castañeda Library.

As of today, the incredibly industrious team can check that particular item off of their to-do list, at least for this year.

In mid-October, a week before midterms, the PCL will be open for 24 hours, 5 days-a-week until the end of the semester — during the time that students see access to a safe, secure study space a priority for their academic work. “24/5” picks back up before spring midterms and follows the same pattern to round out the school year.

Lund and Brown — along with support from SG staff — didn’t play around while most of their fellow students were on break. The pair worked with Libraries administration to target and solicit enough resources across campus for the funding of a one-year pilot of 24/5.

Not content to let temporary funding rest, Lund, Brown and staffers will be working over the course of the year to find permanent funding for the program.

Their hard work makes us proud to be Longhorns.

%CODE1%

Beginning in mid-October, PCL will open at noon on Sundays and remain open through 11 p.m. on Fridays. PCL will be open from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. on Saturdays.