Miranda Coulthard / Winonan

Every semester students foot the bill for an unavoidable necessity: textbooks.

An up and coming method of eliminating the cost of textbooks is to use open source textbooks, as has been proposed by Winona State University’s chapter of the Minnesota State University Student Association (MSUSA) for professors to start utilizing more. Open source textbooks are books are composed online and are free for anyone to use.

MSUSA hosted a meeting earlier this semester where textbook affordability was discussed, and open source textbooks were mentioned as a solution.

If Winona State was to be convinced open source textbooks were the best option, how would the university make up for the loss of the money they make on textbooks?

Winona State Bookstore textbook manager and purchaser Adam Krings said the change may not keep the money in students’ pockets.

“I’m sure tuition would go up. They would figure out something to compensate for the money that would no longer be there,” Krings said.

A flat fee was an alternative option for affordability brought up by Krings. This would be a fee all students would be required to pay no matter how few or how many textbooks they need for the semester.

Winona State first–year student Claire Skogsberg said she spent around $400 to $500 on books this semester alone. If the fees imposed were about $300 a semester, Skogsberg would benefit. But for a student who only pays $100 on books this would not be the same case.

Skogsberg said this could cause a problem for some students.

“It would depend what the fee was, but it depends on your major [and] how much you spend in books. If you were a nursing major I’m sure you would spend more on books,” Skogsberg said.

“I would personally be in favor of a flat rate because I normally pay a lot for the books I get, but I could see how it may pose a problem for someone that may not be paying as much for books if for some reason their book cost or tuition went up in order for it to go down for others,” Griendl said.

Because the Winona State Bookstore is non-profit and almost all the money goes back into university funds for scholarships and university improvements, the income, or loss of income due to the use of open source textbooks in the classroom, would need to be supplemented in some other way,  Krings said.