Ron Hammond, Phd, professor at Utah Valley State College, has quit using textbooks in his classes. Why? They're too expensive.
The cost of textbooks is rising faster than inflation and Hammond doesn't feel right forcing his students to purchase ever more expensive books on top of their already expensive tuition and fees.
"I think it's immoral because of the cost of it," Hammond told the Central Utah Daily Herald.
Instead of textbooks, Hammond has been assigning journal articles and other reading materials that his students can check out from the library or download from the internet, a practice which, if every one of their professors did it, would save students (on average) $900 a year.
It took Hammond a year to rewrite his own curriculum, after throwing out all his old textbooks. "It was worth it in the long run," Hammond said.
(from The Consumerist)
Friday, July 20, 2007
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2 comments:
The biggest part of the problem is the publishers themselves -- is there really a need to publish a new edition every year? College bookstores take the brunt of the blame -- but they don't really mark up their prices any more than a reasonable bookstore does. Publishers set these astronomical prices for their books and make this cycle of new editions that professors who can't think beyond their material get trapped in.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/opinion/12granof.html?th&emc=th
Interesting article on the plight of textbook costs.
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