How can the hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent each semester by students even before they enter a classroom be avoided?
At Fairfield University there are a number of professors who use their own books within the classroom to compliment the learning process. These books range from $5 to over $100 with the subject matter as diversified as the prices.
“With the amount of money we as students spend on books,” said Joe Angelini ’04, “I think it is reprehensible that teachers profit from the sale of a book that they require the student to purchase.”
According to Dr. Lisa Newton of the Ethics Department, professors are not getting rich off the sale of their textbooks.
“I write and use text books so that my students will have certain things available to them that they would have had to find in more than one place,” said Newton.
Academic Vice President Dr. Orin Grossman also down played any ethical question saying that professors at universities across the country use their own textbooks in their own classroom in an effort to aid the learning process. Newton also does not profit from books that she requires within her classroom. She has established a reserve account where all royalties from these books go. The account goes to pay for an ethics web site for the department and honorarium to those she has speak to the class.
“I was definitely pleased to hear that teachers are not profiting from the students they teach if they force the students to buy their books,” said Kristina Tierney.
Other than text books teachers are teaching their own fiction within the classroom. Such professors will argue that doing so will aid the students by having the actual author in the classroom to help explain the meaning of things within the story.
“I took a class where the professor was teaching one of their own works and initially I was a bit turned off at seeing their name along side well-rewell-renown authors,” said Kevin Sullivan, ’02 “But having the teacher explain how he wrote certain things helped me more than mere speculation about writers who are already dead.”
Teachers that use their own books in the classroom are not alone. A professor’s book will have to be used at other universities to maintain circulation. According to Newton, publishers are looking for book sales up and around 50,000. Having one class of at most 100 students buy the book will therefore not keep the book in circulation.
“I just don’t know where all the money goes,” said Sam Ragosta ’04. “How can these books cost so much and no one be making any money.”
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