Nearly forty percent of CUNY students come from households with annual incomes of less than $20,000. For many of our students, the cost of textbooks can be a steep barrier to academic success. At Queens College, students report spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks each semester, often maxing out credit cards or putting off other expenses. Some students who can't afford textbooks try to pass the class without them, while others look for free PDFs online. You can help! By adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) or other zero-cost course materials, you make college more affordable and accessible for all our students. If you teach a course that does not require students to purchase textbooks or other educational materials, be sure to let students know by logging into Akademos and marking the course "Adoptions not required" and "Course uses OER/Zero cost materials" (https://qc-cuny.libguides.com/c.php?g=908303&p=6552766). (This also helps Queens College get funding to develop more OER!) For more information, visit http://ctl.qc.cuny.edu/how-and-why-to-use-open-educational-resources. You can read our past tips at http://ctl.qc.cuny.edu/teaching-tips/. Best regards, The Center for Teaching & Learning