1.9 Historically Underserved Students


“I took a lot of time off school JUST BECAUSE I couldn’t afford the textbooks, even after I became a student purchasing the textbook was THE HARDEST PART.”

“The system sucks. Only people with money can go to college. So poor people stay poor, and rich people get to stay rich. The system is rigged against the poor.”

-Reedley College student comments

The CSUCI White Paper

CSU Channel Islands’ openCI initiative Links to an external site. recently completed a campus-wide study Links to an external site. of over 700 undergraduate students. This is a unique study because it focuses on exploring the impact of textbook costs specifically on historically underserved populations. Statistical analysis revealed textbook prices to be a significant educational barrier for all CSUCI students, with a disproportionately negative effect among racial/ethnic minorities, low-income students, and first-generation college students.

The study concludes that it is our responsibility as staff, faculty, and administrators to "remove any unnecessary financial barriers to academic success, and to ensure that our students’ learning potential is never limited by their purchasing power."

Key Findings

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Accessible text equivalent of data tables

Note: Asterisks indicate statistically significant findings. One asterisk (*) indicates less than a 5% chance of error due to sampling error, two asterisks (**) indicate less than 1% chance of error, and three asterisks (***) indicate less than .1% chance of error.


Attributions:

Page adopted from "Historical Underserved Students" "Zero Textbook Cost Pathways: OER & Equity" by Aloha Sargent is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.

Textbox: " Download Choosing to Create an Equity-Minded College? The Case for Open Education and Zero Textbook Cost Degrees

" by James Glapa-Grossklag, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.

Text and data tables: "Textbook Affordability and Student Success for Historically Underserved Populations at CSUCI Links to an external site." by J. Jacob Jenkins, Jaime Hannans, Luis Sanchez, and Jill Leafstedt for openCI Links to an external site., is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.