Tuesday - November 28, 2006
Suing for Fair Textbooks
I stumbled, literally, across an article
yesterday in the Orlando Sentinel about two students at Daytona Beach Community
College suing
the campus bookstore over unfair pricing. At first I thought the case
couldn't have merit, but as I read I learned that the bookstore violated the
contract they entered into with the college to gain the on-campus book monopoly
by consistently rounding up selling prices and rounding down buy-back prices to
gain a few extra cents profit on each transaction, adding up to several million
dollars. The case is still in the early stages, and the plaintiffs are hoping
to grow their numbers to include other schools where the same bookstore chain
operates.
It's a shame, though, that we are even in this position. The textbook business is unethical as any. Instructors are bribed with gifts by the publishers for choosing their books. The bookstores fight to gain campus monopolies to minimize price competition. And the schools ignore the problems so long as they don't lose money or reputation. This lawsuit is hardly surprising: the textbook environment has become too enticing not to game for the benefit of everyone but the students.
I think the best ways to fight the problems lie with instructors and students. Instructors can choose not to require expensive textbooks, and rather either allow students to pick among several books as supplements to class material or base the course entirely on lecture notes. This requires more work on the part of the instructor, but it would, I believe, ultimately result in better teaching and learning. But even if instructors do nothing, students can protest campus bookstore monopolies with their wallets, shopping online through bookstores like Amazon and student community groups like Facebook, where they can find fellow students selling their books for better deals. I always try to buy my books through Amazon or through friends and saved hundreds of dollars, so even if students can't get behind a better textbook movement, they should act to their financial benefit.
It's a shame, though, that we are even in this position. The textbook business is unethical as any. Instructors are bribed with gifts by the publishers for choosing their books. The bookstores fight to gain campus monopolies to minimize price competition. And the schools ignore the problems so long as they don't lose money or reputation. This lawsuit is hardly surprising: the textbook environment has become too enticing not to game for the benefit of everyone but the students.
I think the best ways to fight the problems lie with instructors and students. Instructors can choose not to require expensive textbooks, and rather either allow students to pick among several books as supplements to class material or base the course entirely on lecture notes. This requires more work on the part of the instructor, but it would, I believe, ultimately result in better teaching and learning. But even if instructors do nothing, students can protest campus bookstore monopolies with their wallets, shopping online through bookstores like Amazon and student community groups like Facebook, where they can find fellow students selling their books for better deals. I always try to buy my books through Amazon or through friends and saved hundreds of dollars, so even if students can't get behind a better textbook movement, they should act to their financial benefit.