MANHATTAN — Wednesday, March 24, Kansas State University hosted the second All In for K-State, allin.ksufoundation.org, a campus wide giving day with an ambitious goal this year to help students save money on textbooks.
K-State News and Communications Service issued a release that said K-Staters come together — virtually — to significantly reduce the cost of textbooks for K-State students by supporting the university's Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative, Textbooks 2.0, which saves students money by replacing expensive traditional textbooks with open/alternative digital resources tailored to the class by the instructor.
"In 2019, we launched the inaugural All In for K-State day of fundraising and discovered what generous K-Staters can accomplish in one day for one philanthropic objective," said Greg Willems, president and CEO of the KSU Foundation. "We're rallying the K-State family again to help students save money on textbooks and essential class resources. All In for K-State 2021 is about providing digital textbooks, custom-tailored by class instructors, that students can afford. Over the past few years, we've learned how important digital alternatives to traditional class materials can be."
Over the past several decades, the cost of traditional textbooks has increased three times faster than the rate of inflation. K-State students are not immune to the high cost of traditional textbooks and the impact that has on the affordability of a college education. Undergraduate students at K-State typically pay nearly $1,000 for books each year. Textbooks 2.0 currently cost only $10 per class.
In the past six years, K-State students have saved $6.8 million with Textbooks 2.0.
Unlike traditional, commercially published textbooks, Textbooks 2.0 are available on multiple digital devices including phones, laptops and tablets, as students need them, whenever and wherever they have internet access.