It’s Not in our Budget: Crowdfunding & Seeking Funds for Textbook Affordability

By Brittany Blanchard (Northern Arizona University, Cline Library) <Brittany.Blanchard@nau.edu>

and Theresa Carlson (Northern Arizona University, Cline Library) <Theresa.Carlson@nau.edu>

Introduction

Textbook prices have increased approximately 160% over the past 20 years, even when controlling for an overall inflation rate of 60.1%.1 On average, students at four year institutions pay $1,200 annually for textbooks and supplies.2 The ability for students to access required course materials directly correlates to student success, lower Drop/Fail/Withdraw rates and higher retention and completion rates. In a 2022 survey of more than 13,000 Florida college students, due to textbook costs, 53.5% do not purchase the required textbook; 43.7% take fewer courses; 38.5% do not register for a specific course; and, 32.4% earn a poor grade from not affording the textbook and 24.2% drop a course.3

This information corresponds to a National Survey by USPIRG taken in September 2020 which included 82 participating institutions and more than 5,000 responses. In 2020, 65% of students surveyed reported not buying a textbook because of cost; two percentage points higher than the previous year. The number of students who report not buying an access code increased from 17 percent in 2019 to 21 percent in 2020. Students who faced food insecurity were more heavily impacted by unaffordable course materials. 82% of students who reported missing a meal due to the pandemic also reported skipping buying textbooks; furthermore, 38% reported they skipped buying an access code.4

Students who are from historically underserved backgrounds, part-time, first generation, and/or financial aid recipients often feel the burden of textbook costs more acutely. A study at California State University Channel Islands found that Latine, first generation, and financial aid dependent students felt higher stress from textbook costs than their white, non-first generation, and non-financial aid dependent counterparts. 5

While Northern Arizona University’s estimated $900 annual books and supply cost is below the national average of $1200,6 it is still a challenge for students to afford course materials. Of NAU’s 22,000 students, approximately 40% identify as a race other than White [6]; 46% identify as first-generation 7 and 33% received a Pell Grant.8 According to The Institute for College Access and Success, NAU students graduate with an average of $22,587 in debt, with 55% of graduates owing money.9 In addition, the cost of housing in Flagstaff is 43% higher and groceries are 16% higher than the national average.10

Finding Funding for Textbook Affordability

These economic challenges, which are already common on our campus, became exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, Northern Arizona University shifted to a hybrid online/in-person model for the Fall 2020 semester. This new approach meant that not all students would return to campus and those that did may not be in physical classrooms.

Quarantines for students testing positive for Covid added more complications. Worried at the possibility that not all students would have access, or could afford their required texts, the library wanted to highlight our collections as a possible solution. While we knew of some books used in courses due to our Course Reserves system, we suspected that there were far more texts in our collections that were being required in courses. To find out this information, we would need a list of required texts, course numbers and faculty names, all of which was most readily available through our campus’ bookstore.

Despite not having an established relationship with the bookstore, they were agreeable to our request and provided a spreadsheet with most of the information that we needed to get started. Spreadsheet clean-up combined with additional data entry took two individuals approximately 20 hours of work. This was due to some unfamiliarity with Excel, not knowing what information was needed and duplicative efforts. Since this time, the bookstore has adjusted the formatting of their spreadsheet which allows us to use an Excel plugin called Fuzzy Lookup to make comparisons easy. We also utilize the functionality inherent in Proquest’s Rialto to do comparisons with books we currently own and those available to purchase.

Once we had a clean spreadsheet, we were able to do an ISBN and title comparison search in our Library Management System (LMS), Ex Libris’ Alma. We were pleasantly surprised that the library already owned over 150 electronic versions of texts used in existing courses. These titles came with varying usage limitations from unlimited to one seat. Since our Course Reserves model was similarly (if not more) limited, we made the decision to alert faculty to all the options, including titles that only offered one seat. Utilizing enrollment numbers from the previous Spring semester and the projections for Fall 2020 classes, we estimated a yearly cost of over $500,000 to students in purchasing these texts. However, based on the comparatively low usage numbers, these students were not using our collection. Did students not realize that they could access their texts for free through the library? We could not contact students directly, but we could alert their faculty. After gathering the permalinks for materials in our catalog, we sent an email to faculty alerting them to the text’s availability and asking them to pass the information along to their students. The responses we received were overwhelmingly positive. One History faculty member said, “Amazing! What a gift for my students!” While another faculty member said, “I’m shocked by how much textbooks cost these days, so I’m sure this will really help my students.”

Seeing how successful this small initiative was, we wondered if we could purchase additional texts to provide even more students with access to their required texts at no cost to them. Where would we get the money?

Crowdfunding for Affordability

Since the library had just experienced significant budget cuts just a few months earlier, we had to look outside the library for our funding. Our development director suggested doing a crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding is the idea of raising money from many small donations rather than seeking out a few large ones. Based on data from UK universities, crowdfunding is more prevalent among universities with limited resources, which tend to be more focused on teaching, are less prestigious, and serve student populations predominantly from lower socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, UK findings show that crowdfunding is used by students and staff to create a “learning experience that they perceive to be more beneficial.”11 As this was a new way to fundraise for the library, we weren’t sure if this method would work. According to the literature, crowdfunding in higher education offers the advantage of diversifying donor sources beyond the conventional ones, such as alumni, to include students, faculty, staff, and community members.12 While there is limited research on crowdfunding in higher education, the studies suggest that students and staff are motivated to give to a crowdfunding campaign out of a sense of philanthropy or an “individual’s desire to generate positive outcomes for both the environment and himself.” Also, affiliation and belongingness are high motivations for giving.13

Cline Library’s Textbook Affordability Challenge Was Born

Getting permission and individuals in the library on-board with the idea was the easiest and most important task. In the Fall of 2020, many in our library wanted something positive to rally around and affordability was a topic many felt passionately about. Librarians drafted informational graphics on the high cost of textbooks and the academic impact that having (or not having) access to textbooks has on students. Library student workers and other students on campus told their stories in videos and graphics thus personalizing the campaign. The library worked closely with the NAU Foundation, as well as individual staff for the colleges responsible for fundraising.

Based on conversations with Development and those with more experience fundraising, we narrowed our focus to courses in the Colleges of Health & Human Services and Social & Behavioral Sciences. We set a goal to raise $15,000 within two months, beginning in October and ending before the winter break in December.

At the conclusion of the campaign, we had raised $7,500. Similar to what the research demonstrated, our donors largely fell into two categories: current employees (43%) and Alumni (35%). While we did have some current students participate, they were at a much smaller number. Just over half of the donors made pledges over $100.

We wanted to maximize the impact of these donations by carefully considering how we allocated funds. To achieve this goal, we prioritized engaging with faculty members before making any textbook purchases. We initiated this process by distributing a brief survey to faculty members whose course materials were identified as those that the library could acquire. The survey posed four key inquiries:

1. Are you still planning to utilize this textbook in either the upcoming Spring or Fall semester?

2. Do you intend to incorporate this textbook into your courses in future semesters?

3. If the answer to either of the previous questions is “no,” do you have an alternative required textbook in mind?

4. If we acquire the textbook, would you be willing to include a link to the library-owned material in your course syllabus?

If faculty responded “no” to the first question, we did not purchase that text. If they responded no to the second, we examined the cost of the text versus potential impact for students and decided whether to purchase based on that information. The answer to the third question allowed us to check whether we had access to the replacement text and, if so, purchase that instead. The fourth question had no bearing on spending. With hindsight, the questionnaires slowed down the purchasing process as many faculty did not respond or needed to be contacted directly for answers. Only a few responses changed our purchasing decision. Now, we simply ask faculty if they are using the text and would like us to purchase an electronic copy. We find this question to be important as we discovered errors on the bookstore list. Overall, faculty are thrilled to find out we are purchasing their textbook and quickly respond to these short questions.

Restricting the funding campaign to two colleges made spending the money slightly more difficult. At the beginning of this project, a decision was made to only purchase books that had a perpetual license and with unlimited seats. However, due to publisher constraints, a significant number of the course texts were not available as eBooks for library purchase. These circumstances prompted the group to reconsider the initial requirement for unlimited user access, allowing for the inclusion of texts with more restricted usage licenses. Conversely (and somewhat surprising to us), several eBooks were relatively inexpensive purchases (under $100), especially for courses within the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences.

In the end, we purchased nearly 40 separate texts for the Spring & Fall courses in 2021 combined. A substantial portion of these textbooks had unlimited user access, while approximately 10% had limitations of three seats or fewer. For those with less than unlimited seats, we gave faculty tips on how to reduce turn-aways. These include reminding students to check back later, close the books when they are done or download a chapter if needed. Library staff also monitor turn-aways and purchase more copies if funds allow. This has been a rare occurrence. Depending on the student enrollment for these courses and the cost of the textbooks, we adjusted our purchases accordingly by acquiring additional copies or expanding the number of simultaneous users.

Many of these texts continue to be used in courses, thus extending the reach of the initial investment. We calculate that this project has potentially saved students more than $200,000 when compared to the bookstore’s pricing for these materials.

Challenges & Forward Directions

Without continued funding to purchase new textbooks, we reverted to examining the list of required textbooks every semester and comparing it against library holdings and alerting or reminding faculty of the availability of a library copy of their course readings. We observed that without these reminders, there was a noticeable decline in usage, as students were unaware of the presence of these materials in the library’s collection.

This change in strategy introduced a few challenges. First, it required us to obtain accurate information from the bookstore in a timely manner, which was sometimes challenging. Second, we relied on faculty members to provide the bookstore with their textbook lists in a timely manner. Lastly, this approach increased the workload on library personnel as they managed the communication and coordination involved in these efforts.

The crowdfunding campaign came together rapidly and, during the momentum, we neglected to decide upon a data tracking method. Consequently, we missed a valuable opportunity to gather feedback from our faculty and students, who were the beneficiaries of these textbook purchases. The data we have collected and continue to gather provides insights into usage and monetary value but falls short of capturing the more personal aspect of how these resources may have positively impacted students in their courses.

The success of this campaign was the foundation used to apply for and receive additional funding through an internal NAU presidential grant. In Fall of 2022, the library received an additional $15,000 to continue our efforts of purchasing electronic textbooks for courses. With this additional financial support, we have been able to purchase over 100 books, estimating potential student savings of approximately half million dollars. Even with the success we have had purchasing small amounts of texts for students, it is clear that library purchases of course materials is a stopgap measure, not the solution to lowering costs for students.

While we are not discontinuing our current initiatives, we have shifted our focus towards promoting the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) among faculty. As part of the NAU grant, we also received $100,000 to offer faculty members stipends to either learn about, adopt, adapt, or create OER materials. Although this project is still in its early stages, we aspire to pave the way for a more inclusive and cost-effective educational landscape.

Endnotes

1. Chart of the Day…or Century. https://www.aei.org/carpediem/chart-of-the-day-or-century-6/

2. College Board Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2021. https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2021.pdf

3. Student Textbook and Instructional Materials Survey: Results and Findings. (2022). Florida Virtual Campus. https://assets.website-files.com/646e59f2d76c6e8c0c5223de/64de6132148ed 7739bc186e4_FLVC%20Textbook%20Survey%20 Report%20-%202022.pdf

4. Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, Third Edition. https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/fixing-the-brokentextbook-market-third-edition/

5. Textbook Affordability and Student Success for Historically Underserved Populations at CSUCI. https:// senate.csuci.edu/meeting-materials/5-openci-whitepaper.pdf

6. Average Cost of College Textbooks. https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-textbooks

7. Institution Research Quick Facts. https://in.nau.edu/ institutional-research/quick-facts/#

8. First Generation Programs. https://nau.edu/first-gen/

9. IPEDS Data. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/ institutionprofile.aspx?unitId=105330

10. Cost of Living in Flagstaff. https://payscale.com/cost-ofliving-calculator/Arizona-Flagstaff

11. Horta, H., Meoli, M. & Vismara, S. Crowdfunding in higher education: evidence from UK Universities. High Educ 83, 547–575 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-02100678-8

12. Craven, J. (May 24, 2013). Universities explore crowdfunding, social media to raise money. USA Today Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/ nation/2013/05/24/collegecrowdfunding-social-mediafundraising/2358503/

13. Cho, M., Lemon, L.L., Levenshus, A.B. et al. Current students as university donors?: determinants in college students’ intentions to donate and share information about university crowdfunding efforts. Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark 16, 23–41 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12208-018-00217-9