Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Textbook Racket



Group 1

Sarrah Nguyen
Matt Kimel
Andrea Frainier
Truth Esguerra



The Textbook Racket

It happens on college campuses across nation: students are required to buy textbooks that their professors happened to have written.

When professors require textbooks they have authored for a class, is there a conflict of interest between students and their professors?

Professor Anu Basu of the Business Department at San Jose State University doesn’t believe so.

“Almost all courses require a text,” she said. “and if the professor has written a text, it is likely that they would be competent and excited to teach from it.”

However, some students feel it is harder to voice your opinion when their teachers are the authors.

“That’s what I do all the time and then we get arguments, stuff like that. It’s just your opinion, your own theories, your ideas and sometimes since they’re professors, they think they’re right all the time,” Ed Mene said.

“You can’t challenge, you wouldn’t be able to challenge anything because he’s the author,” said Carmina Alvarado, a child development senior.

Alvarado also feels that teachers who profit from assigning their authored text in a class are “too much.”

“They’re getting a lot from our tuition and then they’re getting it like from our books, you know? When is it going to end?”

Professor Terry Christensen, who has taught at San Jose State University for 37 years, has authored nine books, two of them textbooks.

Christensen wrote his textbooks because he wasn’t happy with the books available in his field of study.

“I didn’t write that book to make money. I will never get a minimum wage for the hours that were put in [to writing Local Politics],” he said.

Philosophy Professor Daniel Williamson expressed the same thoughts in an e-mail.

“But the profits from texts is very low,” Williamson said. “It’s not as if a professor is producing a bestseller. And given that other professors may be using the book, the percentage of the profit from a professor using his or her own book is small.”

A SJSU lecturer, who wished to remain anonymous, thought it was wrong for professors that made large profits of their textbooks by selling it overpriced to students: “This whole textbook thing is a big scam and they are kind of ripping off the students a little bit. Every couple of years a new edition comes out and it’s basically the same material they just move some chapters around and changed the names.”

Some students agreed with this sentiment.

“I don’t think it’s ethical, they [professors] can publish books, but assigning it for their own class is selfish and I think our university shouldn’t allow that,” said Eishan Mirakhur, a computer engineering freshman.

“If you write the textbook you really shouldn’t be allowed to assign it to a class because it just puts more money into your pocket,” said Rafael Porter, an international business senior.

Three of Porter’s professors have done this: “In those classes, we barely even used the books. They [professors] said they new everything already in the book and they just lectured… That’s why I don’t buy books anymore.”

Some students benefit from their professors writing the class text.

Ivan Metrigal, an engineering junior said he prefers class text compared to an actual textbook.

“In my case, in my engineering building it actually works for us because teachers write their own notes and so way cheaper to buy their notes,” Metrigal said.

Susan McClory, a math professor at SJSU, photocopied notes for her students instead of assigning the $125 textbook. When the faculty discovered this method, the notes were published into a book and are currently used at SJSU and two other campuses.

When two publishers approached me about publishing my class notes my criteria to them was that the price to the student could be no more than $25,” McClory wrote in an e-mail. “The unexpected consequence of a cheap, readable text is that they keep it for reference.”

But Robin Lee, a general manger at Robert’s Bookstore, one of Spartan Bookstore’s competitors feels this is a conflict of interest ingrained in SJSU’s institution.

In order to achieve tenure, professors are encouraged to publish works they have written.

The phrase “publish or perish” refers to the pressures professors often face to in order to sustain their careers.

Williamson, a philosophy professor, also wrote in his e-mail that he felt the pressure to publish is way over the top.

      “Getting published is a large part of getting tenure,” he said. “So in a sense, any work on a book does yield some benefit, the compensation is getting tenure or a raise in grade from assistant to associate to full.”

The Faculty Affairs office did not immediately return an interview request.



Students Stress Over Expensive Textbooks

There are not many issues that college students unanimously agree on. Textbook prices are one of the exceptions. Most, if not all, college students think textbooks cost too much money.
Eishan Mirakhur, a computer engineering freshman, recently bought a math textbook for $180 and said he could “get the same knowledge out of the Internet.” Mirakhur added that the book was expensive and he did not use it very much.
“Here they are more expensive,” said Silvia Santinello, an Italian exchange student, commenting on textbook prices in the United States. Santinello, a journalism major, said textbooks in Milano cost around 20-30 euros (about $31-$47) and around 50 euros (about $80) at SJSU.
An anonymous SJSU lecturer agreed with the students’ opinion stating “this whole textbook thing is a big scam and they’re kind of ripping off the students a little bit.”
One way to avoid high textbook prices is to buy used books.
Robert’s Bookstore, located on Tenth Street by Campus Village, is a family run business that has been open for 50 years. Robert’s Bookstore “opened up as a mom and pop store trying to provide used [and new] books to” the college community, said manager Robin Lee. According to Lee, Robert’s Bookstore serves about 20 percent of SJSU students.
Lee said that publishers set a list price for textbooks and Robert’s Bookstore sells used books at 25 percent less than the list price. Comparing books to cars, Lee said “It’s nice if you can resell your car once you’re done with it and you can get something back because you’re done with it…and it’s nice if you choose to buy a used car and try and save money.”



Video






Pictures