ZCCM 2019-2021 Data + STIF funding data (Ramirez & Yarra courses) through December 2023
ZCCM grants to faculty totaling $31,000 have impacted 2,181 students in 19 courses with savings for students of $220,919.00 or an average of $101.00 per student enrolled in a ZCCM course. This does not account for continued savings. In spring 2023, we asked faculty previously awarded grants from 2019 to 2021 to identify if they were still using zero-cost course materials for students. Based on their responses, we calculated an additional $224,000 in savings for students.
Over 91% of student survey respondents in ZCCM courses (2019-2021) indicated that potential cost savings of course materials were moderately to extremely important to them. UC Merced California Public Interest Group (CALPIRG) student representatives have called attention to its research on college students and the costs of higher education including textbook costs.
A CALPIRG’s survey found that 11% of UC Merced students are “more likely than the national average to decide against buying or renting textbooks because they were too expensive. [And] 73% … indicated that they have either missed paying a bill, skipped a meal, worked extra hours, chosen between classes due to their relative costs, or dropped a class because they could not afford the materials. This is higher than the national average of 58%.” (from LASC/Library White Paper pg. 51).
-- *Savings numbers were calculating by taking the prices of previously used commercial materials in the course and multiplying them by the number of students enrolled in the zero-cost course materials courses.
