Form letter
Dear Professor (insert name here),
Textbook prices are out of control. It's not uncommon for students to pay well over $700 a semester for books, and nobody can keep the same textbook for more than one semester because there's always a new edition with some tiny change. It's a waste of money, resources, and time, and (I/we/group name here) has decided we're not going to take it anymore.
Starting (semester start date), we are going to boycott all new editions of textbooks from every textbook publisher we can find. Unless there's a good reason for buying the book new -- like a brand new first edition book -- we're not going to spend our money on it. Textbook publishers need to know we're not going to keep spending money on insignificant changes, and the easiest way to speak to them is with our bank accounts.
However, we can't do it alone. As a faculty member, you have control over what books are used in your courses -- or in this case, what books are not used. As your students, we encourage you to stand with us by not requiring brand new books for this semester's classes, or by providing us with alternate materials in place of a textbook. That way, we don't risk our academic standing in the process of sending textbook publishers a long overdue message.
If you have any questions, please feel free to get ahold of me/us at (insert email address and phone number here). We'd greatly appreciate your support, and can't wait to get back to class.
Sincerely,
(your name here)
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