The Spectator The independent student newspaper of Valdosta State University
Written by Miles Brown, Staff Writer
A group of VSU professors is aiding in the fight against the increasing price of textbooks.
This year, 10 biology professors received Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grants. The grant enables students to pay less for textbooks. These teachers have been awarded ALG Textbook Transformation Award of 2016.
The Biology faculty has been awarded four ALG Textbook Transformation Grants for the following courses: BIOL 1010, BIOL 1030, BIOL 1107, and BIOL 1108. The purpose of the grant is to decrease the amount of funds students have to pay for textbooks each year.
This grant is a way universities are making school more affordable as well as increasing academic success. The grant will focus on core curriculum classes students take their first and second years of college. This will ensure that the students can focus on doing well in the department academically and worry less about financially being able to cover cost for textbooks.
The USG faculty and staff received, and are being awarded based on outstanding accomplishment, affordable learning materials.
The University System of Georgia initiative to promote the success of the college students is by providing affordable textbook alternatives.
Affordable Learning Georgia and eCore are working together to make open educational resources available as a replacement for textbooks. They seek to provide appropriate resources to 50 of the most enrolled lower division courses in USG.
Yet one of the professors leading these efforts to reduce textbook costs is among the group of tenure-track faculty being fired by VSU.
Let’s not portray the image that VSU is in any way supporting the faculty and efforts highlighted here.