CUNY Asks City Council to Fund Free Software

By SANDRA ALMONTE

CUNY officials asked City Council members for $1 million to fund free educational software for students on Tuesday.

“We project that a total of 50 open courses can be established with these funds, which will then generate a savings of almost $6 million to our students over the next four years,” said Mathew Sapienza, CUNY Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance.

The suggested strategy CUNY presented to the Committee of Higher Education was for Open Educational Resources (OERs) — academic materials that are made accessible and reusable by anyone for any purpose, free of barriers or restrictions.

OERs are teaching, learning, and research resources, which include open textbooks video lectures, tutorials, readings and even full online courses. They are free, meaning they are available in digital format, and carry the appropriate legal permissions to allow users to fully use, adapt, print, and share the work, officials said.

OERs are a huge contrast to digital e-books; many still costing more than $100 and can carry heavy digital rights management restrictions.

In a recent survey by the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) on 17 New York State college campuses, the percentage of students stating that they were considering against buying a required textbook because of the expense was as high as 74 percent; Brooklyn College resulting in 71 percent.

“Forty percent of CUNY students do not receive financial aid,” said CUNY Dean Curtis Kendrick. “The costs of textbooks have made students withdraw from courses.”

“Anyone who’s a Business Management major knows how expensive books are,” said Michael Hurtado, a Borough of Manhattan Community College student.

According to the College Board, the average student pays $1,200 a year on textbooks, increasingly contributing to college costs, leaving many students and their families struggling to afford higher education.

“There is no justification as to why a student should have to pay this much for textbooks on top of rising costs of living, the rising costs of tuition, the rising costs of transportation, in a city that fashions itself as progressive,” said Muhammad Arshad,cchairman of the University Student Senate.

“The CUNY student is the lifeblood and the spirit of everything that this city stands for, and we need this city to stand for, and by, these same people,” Arshad said.