THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2328

TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to the university of Hawai‘i.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the cost of attending college continues to rise.  According to the College Board, the cost of tuition and fees for attending an in-state public college for the 2017-2018 academic year averaged $9,970, while the average cost for books and supplies for the same academic year at public colleges averaged $1,250.

     In April 2016, the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education issued a study that analyzed college costs in relation to family income level.  The study revealed how higher education has gone from expensive to unaffordable for most low- and middle-income families.  According to this same study, Hawai‘i ranked third in the nation for overall college affordability and noted that the University of Hawai‘i community colleges are the most affordable public two-year institutions in the nation.

     The report further acknowledged that despite Hawai‘i's overall high affordability ranking, attending college was a big expense for families earning less than $30,000 annually; that Hawai‘i's financial aid policies did little to alleviate costs for these families; and that the State provided minimal need-based aid to students attending public institutions.  Therefore, new and innovative solutions need to be implemented to lower other costs associated with attending school within the University of Hawai‘i system.

     The legislature further finds that since 2015, open educational resources at the University of Hawai‘i has offered free instructional materials to potentially lower the cost of higher education, provide faculty more control over their instructional materials, and enable new ways of learning for students.  Specifically, open educational resources offers learning, teaching, and research resources that are either in the public domain or have been released with an intellectual property license that permits free reuse and repurposing.  Through faculty use of open educational resources since its adoption, this technology-driven instructional content has saved students hundreds of thousands of dollars in textbook costs.

     The purpose of this Act is to, beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, require all courses at all campuses within the University of Hawai‘i system that require the use of instructional materials to exclusively use instructional materials from the open educational resources at the University of Hawai‘i.

     SECTION 2.  Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, all courses at all campuses within the University of Hawai‘i system that require the use of instructional materials, including textbooks, shall use instructional materials from the open educational resources at the University of Hawai‘i; provided that the use of instructional materials, including textbooks, that requires a student to purchase or pay a subscription for the materials shall be prohibited; provided further that if open educational resources does not have relevant instructional materials available for a course, the faculty member or lecturer responsible with providing instruction for the course shall create the instructional materials and offer those materials free of charge to students through open educational resources.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

University of Hawai‘i; Instructional Materials; Open Educational Resources

 

Description:

Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, requires all courses at all campuses within the University of Hawai‘i system that require the use of instructional materials to exclusively use instructional materials from the open educational resources at the University of Hawai‘i, under certain conditions.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.