Staff editorial: Unlocking the future

It was almost two years ago that the University Senate — this institution's most powerful legislative body — narrowly voted down a resolution calling on faculty members to make their research available to the world at large on free online databases.

Yet in spite of the senate's 2009 rebuke of open and free access to knowledge, in recent months the concept seems to have been given new life at this university.

Last November, psychology professor Charles Stangor published a textbook, Introduction to Psychology, through the start-up publishing company Flat World Knowledge. Like all textbooks, it was peer reviewed and went through a stringent editing process. Yet, unlike other textbooks, Stangor's work, when accessed online, is provided to any user with an Internet connection completely free of charge. Moreover, if students — or anyone else for that matter — wish to have an electronic or paper copy of the book, then they can purchase it for a mere $24.95.

With the specter of the proposed 3 percent tuition increase looming large in the collective consciousness of the university community, the potential financial relief that open-access textbooks represent has this editorial board cheering along with students. Indeed, if textbooks such as Stangor's were used at this university, the potential savings could be colossal.

After all, the textbooks assigned in the two classes of PSYC 100: Introduction to Psychology offered this semester cost $125.70 and $75.55, respectively — expenses that could be almost completely eliminated if Stangor's textbook were adopted.

But while this editorial board enthusiastically supports free and unfettered access to knowledge because of the financial benefits it represents, we also do so because of our strong belief in the importance and power of learning.

The debate that surrounds open access to knowledge — whether in the form of textbooks, journal articles or simply class notes — is not solely one about money; it is also a debate about privilege.

As students, we occupy a special position. Through loans, parents or hard work, all of us somehow possess enough money to spend approximately four years of our lives in college — an environment where our primary responsibilities are thinking, learning and growing. But for most people, this is an opportunity that will never present itself. In the United States alone, only 27.9 percent of the population 25 years old or older has a bachelor's degree, and in the world at large, that number for those at least 15 years old is a mere 6.7 percent.

And for those who do not have the opportunity to obtain an education past high school, open access to information allows them to obtain knowledge that they may never otherwise have been exposed to. And information, as philosophers, social theorists and politicians have noted over the centuries, is transformative. It allows people to understand the world and the people around them. It gives them an opportunity to dream. And in some instances, it can help them succeed. By breaking down the institutional boundaries that have isolated knowledge in an ivory tower, open-access textbooks and articles ensure that those who want to educate themselves are able to do so.

So, as student leaders, university officials and state legislators look for ways to decrease the ever-growing price of college textbooks, we encourage them to consider the benefits of open-access information. After all, knowledge, at its core, belongs to no one but the world.