The high cost of textbooks has become a major debate across UMass Lowell. Many financially concerned students face hardships at the beginning of each semester, worrying if they will be able to purchase their necessities. Paying hundreds of dollars for textbooks is not ideal, especially when not all of its content is used for their respective courses. Students are left frustrated and concerned as a result. So, because of this issue, UMass Lowell has been promoting open educational resources (OER) and low-cost textbooks. This can ease worries, but oftentimes, students do not know how much their books will cost until the first day of classes. However, the university is implementing new ways of resolving this issue. The OER Task Force members, including administrators, faculty and SGA (Student Government Association), have worked to create a new system when registering for classes for the upcoming spring semester.
