About the Textbook Affordability Initiative
In response to the rising costs of textbooks and digital course materials, SIUE has created two incentive programs to encourage faculty to adopt Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or Cengage Unlimited materials, helping reduce these costs for students.
These programs are a joint effort between the Office of the Provost as head of Academic Affairs and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, which oversees Textbook Service and the collection of student textbook fees.
A faculty textbook affordability committee reviews OER incentive proposals and makes recommendations to the Provost. It also evaluates proposals for the Cengage Unlimited incentive program and advises the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. The committee is available to faculty for consultation before, during, and after the adoption of OER or Cengage Unlimited materials.
Additionally, the committee also reviews final reports submitted by faculty recipients of incentive grants.
Primary faculty contacts for the OER committee are Joe Kohlburn, Assistant Professor for Open Educational Resources and Scholarly Communications in the Lovejoy Library and Mitchell Haas, assistant professor and online learning librarian at Lovejoy.
Primary faculty contacts for the Cengage Unlimited incentive plan are Mark Poepsel, Associate Professor of Mass Communications and Stan Solomon, Associate Professor, School of Business.
