Dear students, faculty and staff,

The Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the University Library are proud to announce the awardees for the 2026-27 Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program. The program encourages faculty to use and develop free open educational resources as alternatives to traditional textbooks for undergraduate courses. The incentive program is part of UIC's student success initiative and was developed in response to student concerns about the high cost of course materials.

Nine faculty members will each receive a portion of the allocated funding for this program. Faculty members' plans include adopting open textbooks and other open education resources, modifying open textbooks and creating new open access supplemental material. Instructors will be able to use resources more pertinent to their courses and tailor exercises and quizzes to their syllabi.

Applications were received from the colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Urban Planning and Public Affairs, Nursing and Engineering. In a semester, more than 1,800 students who enroll in the faculty awardees' courses could save approximately $202,630 by using open educational resources instead of purchasing new textbooks.

The Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program 2026-27 awardees are:

• Kelly LeRoux, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, POL 230 Nonprofit Organizations and Civil Society
• Ángela Betancourt-Ciprian, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, SPAN 113 Spanish for Heritage Speakers I
• Pamela Smith, College of Nursing, NURS 228 Readiness for Nursing Practice
• Ishani Mukherjee, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, COMM 220 Social Media and Marketing
• Sayali Kukday, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, BIOS 220 Genetics
• Lisa Bailey, College of Business Administration, BA 200 Business Communication
• Farid Peiravian, College of Engineering, CME 207 Engineering Probability and Economics
• Michael Caracotsios, College of Engineering, CHE 301 Thermodynamics
• Jack Bandy, College of Engineering, CS 418 Introduction to Data Science

For more information about the Open Textbook Faculty Incentive Program, please contact Amina Malik, digital publishing librarian, at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Karen J. Colley
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Rhea Ballard-Thrower
University Librarian and Dean of Libraries

For more information, please contact:
Amina Malik
[email protected]