UNG press
A new semester brings new classes — and new textbooks, which often place a heavy financial burden on students. According to recent data from the College Board, a nonprofit organization founded in 1899 to expand access to higher education, the estimated cost of books and supplies for full-time undergraduates in the 2024–2025 academic year ranged from about $1,000 to $1,220.
For many students, the price of course materials adds up quickly. “Freshman year, I had to take a science class and there was a gigantic textbook and it cost a lot,” said Caroline Mouchet, a senior majoring in digital marketing.
Emma Rae Gilreath, a junior majoring in communications, also recalled, “I took Italian over the summer, and we had to get a textbook, and it was like almost $200. That was a lot.”
To help ease these costs, the University of North Georgia operates its own publishing company, UNG Press, which was created specifically to reduce students’ spending on textbooks.
“We started out as a presidential innovation grant to develop a press publishing company that would provide professional experience for students and also amplify or showcase our own university research,” said Bonnie “B.J.” Robinson, director of UNG Press. “We got it started with two books that we were able to publish from that grant — one being about the gold rush here in the region, and we also published a textbook written by one of our political science instructors called The Basics of American Government. Because of that book, we were approached by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, asking if we would be interested in publishing open textbooks, essentially OER — open educational resources.”
The impact since then has been significant.
“This year alone, just for UNG, we have saved our students $1.8 million,” – Bonnie “B.J.” Robinson, director of UNG Press
“Learning should be continual, and our textbooks will always be updated. They are always available for free online and people can continuously improve their education just by going and getting them on their own. Our books are also distributed for free around the world, and almost two-thirds of the states in America have adopted our textbooks. It’s helping more than just north Georgia. The one I am most proud of — simply because it validates the quality of what we do — is Resonances, which is the music history textbook, and it has been adopted by Princeton.”
Robinson also pointed out why commercial textbooks are often so expensive. “Book companies have been using the textbooks themselves inexpensively but added to that are computer programs and platforms of integrative learning — the tests, the research topics, everything from quizzes to PowerPoint-supported lectures. They provide professors that as part of the package of the textbook. A textbook itself may cost $30 perhaps, but to use that program will cost $300 and the students have to pay for them,” she said. “And because most professors are really overworked, having all of that preparation done for them has been very attractive. But we’ve got a research grant from Affordable Learning Georgia to prove, that because of AI, they can create these things on their own completely free. They do not need to turn to a commercial education textbook company.”
Beyond reducing costs, UNG Press also offers professional training opportunities. “We do have student interns and we make sure that they get a full range of professional opportunities because we are interested in education in a broad sense, in terms of experiential learning and press publishing,” Robinson said. “It does writing, it does marketing, it does accounting, it does legal, it goes on and on. Our students have come in thinking, ‘Well, I really just want to do anything,’ and by the time they leave, they think, ‘Wow, I can do graphic design and media and marketing, and I can even start my own companies.’ So they get a range of experiences and they get transferable skills.”
Looking ahead, Robinson said UNG Press has ambitious goals. “One of the goals that we have for the future is what would be called a zero-cost, zero-textbook-cost per major,” she said. “We’re going to try to have all the textbooks that would be used within a major — at least one course or one option throughout the whole student career — that would be totally free of textbook costs. That will involve whole departments, but we know it can happen and we’re going to make that happen. With us already saving students so much a year through OER, and how substantially that number grows each year, and with the advancements in technologies that are allowing us to improve our reach with those resources, I know one of the press’s future focuses is going to be just further expanding our impact at our core.”