College on a Dime: Socially conscious professors want you to buy books off-campus?

If the professors want to help the students, they could assign or allow older editions of textbooks to be used so that students could acquire them at bargain prices through online resellers like AbeBooks, Ebay, Amazon, Half.com, etc. rather than having to buy them brand new because the 20th edition came out this year making last year's 19th edition almost worthless.

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This need for "new editions" of standard textbooks for practically every semester is a complete con job by the publishers and authors. And ...guess who writes the text books. That's right the professors! They don't want you to be able to use the previous editions because they don't recieve royalties on used books. Notice that the "new" editions change the textbook just enough to make it necessary to have to purchase a new book at full price. In reality, there are few instances where a textbook really needs to be update more frequently than every 2 - 4 years. Nothing but legalized scam artists that puts the mob to shame - I'd bet they wish they had thought of it first!

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As a university professor, I have made it my job to try to get the price of the textbooks down. At the same time, I have seen far too many students attempt to pass courses without textbooks -- and fail. The year I arrived at my current university, the textbook (which had already been picked out before I arrived) cost over $150. This year, the textbook for Introduction to Macroeconomics cost just $36 and that was for a brand NEW copy (used copies were $27). So professor can do something to bring down the price for students.

As to your point of professors going elsewhere than the university bookstore, I should point out that I have often found that independent booksellers actually sell the textbooks for LESS than the university bookstore does. That is because the "buying power" that you refer to can be had by ANY bookseller willing to put in a minimum order of around 10 copies. At the same time, the university bookstore often pays a rather large fee to the university for the space. Thus, their costs are often higher than the independent bookseller. The key to determining which is cheaper is to see if the price of books that are sold BOTH in the bookstore and in the independent shop differ. Depending on the store, students can save as much as 10% by going to an independent bookseller. In those cases, the extra trip may be well worth it (although I would agree that the professor really should make the book available through the campus bookstore as well--to do otherwise is, exactly as you point out, a morally offensive mechanism for forcing the students to pay for the professor's own socially conscious agenda). In the case of the bookstore that operates in competition with the university bookstore, professors do not have to place orders with them. However, they somehow find out what we assign and my students report their pleasure at being able to save money by going to another source (I suspect that they find out our orders because the university bookstore publishes the book information online for students).

University bookstores do not, contrary to popular belief, get special breaks from publishers unless they are VERY large. So while the University of Massachusetts at Amhurst might have a bookstore that can pressure publishers, many of our smaller colleges and universities (including the one where I teach) cannot.

I think that it is sad that so many students seem to think that their professors conspire with the publishers. We do not. Very few professors write textbooks and, unless you are asking your students to use your own textbook, the professor is not making any money from the textbook that he or she assigns. The real problem is that most of them do not see fit to check out what the price will be of the textbooks. Many really do not know how much it costs nor what the alternatives would cost (in the case where they do know how much they cost, they figure that there is not much difference in cost).

As to why we do not use older editions, I do not have a problem with a student using an older edition. However, if the chapter ordering differs or the material differs, the student who chooses to purchase older editions cannot hold the professor responsible--and sometimes it is precisely that new information which will be on the test. Also, if I refer to a page number for a graph or a table, the student with the older edition may be out of luck in trying to find it. However, in counter to the point made by Ellie, we cannot assign older editions because there may not be enough copies on the used market for everyone. To do so would be a major problem. So, it is the student who must look at the older edition and ensure that it is materially the same as the newer edition. If it is not, I would be cautious about that bit of advice, especially in fields where there are major changes that occur between editions.

For my part, I encourage students to buy international editions since they are, for the most part, the same as the ones found in the US, except in softcover instead of hardcover. I also encourage them to shop online for better deals.

Finally, going back to the point Peter made about the professor who assigns his or her own textbook, I have actually done that. Since I own the copyright to the textbook, when I teach my course on crime and economics, I have arranged for our copy center (not the bookstore) to print copies and bind them for students and sell them to students AT COST. The result was a 394 page textbook that can purchased by students for about $20, including a softcover. I don't make a single cent off of the endeavor (indeed, I find that a professor should never make money off his or her students as that is a conflict of interest and, to my mind, quite unethical) and since I know what has changed, if I update the textbook between the last time I ran it and the current time, I can have errata printed for those students who have the previous edition.

Finally, I want to agree with another point that you have made. Professors that fail to require the use of the textbook in some fashion are doing their students a disservice. I have always had assignments that simply could not be done without the textbook. After all, I cannot cover all of the material in my lecture that appears in the book. I instead concentrate on areas that I know are difficult for students and expect students to have read the book and come prepared to class. In addition, I give my students open-book quizzes that require them to think carefully about the material instead of merely reproducing my lectures. In this way, the book adds value to the course instead of being a drain on student finances.

Sincerely,

Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics
Winston-Salem State University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina\

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The publishers are the ones who force the use of newer editions. Once the new edition comes out, a professor can't necessarily use an older edition because they can't guarantee that all students will be able to get one.

Professors who author textbooks don't make much money. They put far more time and effort into their writings than they can ever hope to recover in royalties, unless they are one of a very select few authors. The updates take lots of time, and the author really receives little to no benefit from it.

More frequent updates are a sign of the times. For one, it's a function of our rapidly changing business environment. More likely, it's a function of where the publishing world has gone.

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