The ASCCC’s Annual Fall Plenary Session will be held November 6–8, 2025 in La Jolla. The OERI has written a number of resolutions that will be considered for adoption by the voting delegates. If you or your colleagues have any questions about the positions or actions the OERI has proposed in the resolutions, please let the OERI know.
111.03 F25 Supporting the Intent of Title 5 §54221 Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials
Whereas, The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Burden-Free Instructional Materials Task Force was charged with providing recommendations and regulatory actions to reduce instructional material costs and create sustainable, equitable solutions that prioritize the removal of financial, administrative, and psychological burdens on students, as outlined in its 2024 report Advancing Equity in Access, Support, and Success through Burden-Free Instructional Materials[1];
Whereas, The Burden-Free Instructional Materials Task Force emphasized that a “burden-free student experience” means the alleviation of all unnecessary burdens, including financial burdens, and noted that sustainable, no-cost course materials options, such as open educational resources, should be prioritized over practices auto-billing program such as “inclusive access”, which impose automatic fees on students and limit their agency when choosing how to obtain course materials (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, 2024, p. 6);
Whereas, Auto-billing programs create new burdens for students by imposing automatic charges for course resources, often without offering meaningful options for opting out, and disproportionately affecting students who rely on financial aid or require print formats, thereby contradicting the intent of title 5 §54221[2] Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials to remove cost burdens for students (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, 2024, p. 8); and
Whereas, The California Community Colleges system’s vision for equitable access and success aligns with the goals of title 5 §54221, which seeks to prioritize the elimination of instructional material costs for students, and the burden-free approach outlined by the Burden-Free Instructional Materials Task Force underscores the importance of fostering student choice and agency without introducing new financial or administrative barriers;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges affirm that the intent of title 5 §54221 Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials is to support students having access to instructional materials at no cost, thereby prioritizing the removal of cost burdens over access burdens;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to work with their respective colleges to avoid adopting auto-billing programs such as “inclusive access” that impose automatic charges on students, and instead support practices that align with the goals of title 5 §54221, including expanding the use of open educational resources and other no-cost instructional materials; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourage the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to continue implementing the recommendations of the Burden-Free Instructional Materials Task Force including discouraging practices that limit student choice or create new financial burdens, and providing guidance on fostering sustainable, no-cost instructional materials solutions.
CONTACT | Julie Bruno, Open Educational Resources Initiative
[1] California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. (2024, April 15). Advancing equity in access, support and success through burden-free instructional materials [PDF]. California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. https://www.cccco.edu/-/media/CCCCO-Website/docs/report/2024-burden-free-instructional-materials-4-15-24-a11y.pdf
111.04 F25 Policy Recommendations for the Implementation of Title 5 §54221 Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials
Whereas, Title 5 §54221 requires governing boards to “adopt policies that ensure student access to textbooks and supplemental materials that are needed on the first day of class” and delineates “practices that enable first day access to zero-cost resources”, but does not specify college responsibilities after the first day of class[1];
Whereas, The California Community College Chancellor’s Office issued a memo on July 22, 2025, Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials: Regulatory Provisions (ESS 25-43), that states that Title 5 §54221:
“…requires that district governing boards adopt policies guaranteeing student access to textbooks and supplemental materials on the first day of class. Practices that meet this requirement include adopting and adapting open educational resources (OER) or providing initial textbook chapters in accordance with copyright allowances. In addition to first-day access, governing boards must also adopt policies that strengthen student access to all other instructional materials before they are required in any course. The goal is to reduce both financial and administrative burdens on students throughout the term [emphasis added]. While advancing these efforts, district policies must uphold faculty responsibility and academic freedom in the selection of instructional materials. Additionally, the regulation calls for college districts to support student-centered practices that promote the use of zero-cost and OER materials.
Specifically, district policies are expected to support and leverage resources to implement and sustain zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) degrees, as authorized by Education Code section 78052, and to prioritize the use of OER to complete degrees and career technical education certificates. When OER is widely available, especially in general education courses, district policies should support adopting these resources accordingly. Additional measures include establishing lending programs, maintaining library resources that ensure immediate access to course materials, and enabling early disbursement of financial aid pursuant to federal regulations (34 CFR §668.164(i)). Districts are also encouraged to promote timely completion of financial aid files and to utilize direct aid and support programs that enhance student financial stability. (Todd, 2025, p. 2)”[2]
Whereas, The charge of the Burden-free Instructional Materials Task Force proposed a vision that “when a course begins, students have everything needed for that course, including all instructional materials at no cost” (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, 2024, p. 8), expanding the “burden-free” experience referenced in Title 5 §54221 to all instructional materials (i.e., textbooks, supplemental materials, and supplies) and beyond the first day of class;[3] and
Whereas, College districts have until January 26, 2026 to conform their policies and procedures to the regulatory requirements associated with title 5 §54221 Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges assert that the intent of title 5 §54221 Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials is to support students having access to all instructional materials at no cost, not merely free access to resources for a limited part of the term; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local academic senates to work with their administrations to adopt policies that support the sustainability of local efforts to encourage and support the adoption of open educational resources and other approaches to establishing zero textbook cost pathways as a mechanism for achieving the intent of title 5 §54221 Burden-Free Access to Instructional Materials.
CONTACT | Julie Bruno, Sierra College, Area A
111.05 F25 Encourage Systemwide Use of California Community Colleges Canvas Commons
Whereas, All openly licensed resources created with Zero-Textbook-Cost Degree Program funds must be shared, but California Education Code §78052[4] specifies that “Testing and assessment materials posted online pursuant to this paragraph shall be safeguarded to maintain the integrity of those materials.”;
Whereas, Canvas Commons is a platform for sharing complete Canvas courses with all Canvas users who have instructor status, providing a mechanism for limiting the users that can access Canvas Commons, but making resources available to users with specified credentials at over 8000 institutions[5];
Whereas, There is a California Community College Canvas Commons that could be used to limit the access to resources created by California Community College faculty to only users with the appropriate permissions within the system, decreasing the opportunity for assessments within shared courses to be accessed by inappropriate users, yet less than 25% of colleges in the system have made the California Community College Canvas Commons available to their faculty (G. Grace, personal communication, n.d.); and
Whereas, The use of a Canvas Commons that only houses resources developed and used by faculty in the California Community Colleges would facilitate discovery of these resources;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges recognizes the California Community College Canvas Commons as an appropriate platform for faculty to minimize access to Canvas resources that should only be available to faculty; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourages local academic senates to advocate for making the California Community Colleges Canvas Commons available for local use.CONTACT | Julie Bruno, Sierra College, Area A
[2] Todd, J. (2025, July 22). Burden-free access to instructional materials: Regulatory provisions (Memorandum No. ESS 25-43). California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. https://www.cccco.edu/-/media/CCCCO-Website/docs/memo/ess-25-43-burden-free-access-to-instructional-materials-regulatory-provisions-a11y.pdf?la=en&hash=D8EA4728214206D40F6892F7C0F608547E9600DA
[3] California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. (2024). Advancing equity in access, support and success through burden-free instructional materials. https://www.cccco.edu/-/media/CCCCO-Website/docs/report/2024-burden-free-instructional-materials-4-15-24-a11y.pdf
113.02 F25 Ensuring the Transparency of Automatic Billing Programs for Students
Whereas, Automatic-billing programs, also referred to as “inclusive access” programs, typically charge students a per-unit fee for course materials, regardless of the actual cost of the required resources and often fail to clearly notify students of opt-out options, thereby limiting student choice and creating new financial burdens[1];
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges opposes the use of automatic-billing strategies that maintain reliance on commercial publishers and encourages colleges to consider the long-term impact of such programs on students[2];
Whereas, As of Fall 2025, at least four California community colleges have adopted automatic-billing programs that charge students a per-unit fee for course materials, even when the cost of the commercial materials is less than the per-unit fee, and often when there are no costs, creating inequities for students; and
Whereas, The 2024 report from the Burden-Free Instructional Materials Task Force, Advancing Equity in Access, Support, and Success through Burden-Free Instructional Materials[3], highlights the importance of fostering equitable access to instructional materials by alleviating financial burdens and ensuring that students have agency in their educational choices, recommending practices that prioritize no-cost materials, and discourage automatic-billing mechanisms that limit transparency and choice;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to advocate for regulatory changes that require automatic-billing programs to be opt-in, provide clear and transparent pricing information, and exclude no-cost course materials from cost calculations.
CONTACT | Michelle Pilati, Rio Hondo College, Area C
[1] U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Automatic Textbooks Billing: An Offer Students Can’t Refuse? (K. Vitez, Author). (February 2020). https://studentpirgs.org/assets/uploads/2022/12/USPIRG_Textbook-Automatic-Billing_Feb2020_v3-2.pdf
[2] Resolution F22 17.02 Textbook Automatic Billing Concerns and Resolution F19 09.06 Consider Implications of Publisher-Developed Lower Cost “Inclusive Access” Strategies
[3] Advancing Equity in Access, Support and Success through Burden-Free Instructional Materials
114.04 F25 Developing a Consistent Method for Calculating Student Cost Savings Resulting from Open Educational Resources Adoption
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has long supported lowering course material costs through the adoption of open educational resources[1];
Whereas, The adoption of open educational resources saves students money, but gathering the data to calculate actual cost-savings is labor-intensive and there is no standardized systemwide method to facilitate the calculation of savings that colleges could use to track and quantify savings;
Whereas, A simple standardized method for calculating the cost savings that result from the adoption of open educational resources, such as using a stipulated class size and textbook cost, would allow for the compilation of savings-related data and as well as support the advocacy for ongoing OER funding; and
Whereas, Data demonstrating the return on investment associated with open educational resources (OER) is necessary to advocate for ensuring the sustainability of OER efforts[2];
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges work with system partners to research and develop a standardized method for calculating student savings resulting from the adoption of open educational resources that can be applied across all California community colleges, simplifying the gathering of impact data and allowing for publication and comparisons and to present this recommended method for consideration by local academic senates no later than the 2026 Spring Plenary Session.
CONTACT | Liz Encarnacion, Chaffey College, Area D
[1] Resolution 17.02 F18 Establish Local Open Educational Resources Liaison and Resolution 03.05 F21 Zero Means Zero Textbook Cost
[2] Resolution 11.03 S21 Advocate for On-Going Funding for the ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative
Disclaimer
The resolutions above do not reflect the position of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, its Executive Committee, or its standing committees. They are presented for the purpose of discussion and debate by the field on Saturday, November 08, 2025, at the 2025 Fall Plenary Session.