They’re cheating you and stealing your money, and no Robin Hood can give it back to you.
They’re not thieves. They’re not even the government.
They’re the people behind the textbook industry — the people who take advantage of students and make obscene profits through unfair means.
But one OU professor is fighting them.
Professor Marielle Hoefnagels wrote a biology textbook that she is not making a profit from, opting instead to put royalties into a textbook scholarship fund. (See page 1 for details.)
Hoefnagels’ commendable move illuminates two important and alarming aspects of the textbook industry: profit motives and refusal to convert to online books.
The textbook industry takes advantage of students by profiting from required new editions that may have a few sentences changed. It also cheats students by selling only bundled packages that include expensive discs and workbooks that may never be touched.
The industry wastes precious resources like paper and ink by printing bulky books that could easily be sold through online subscriptions.
Book prices are hiked because of printing and shipping costs that could be avoided.
Students should have the option to use Internet-based books that could be printed or read on-screen.
The textbook industry badly needs to change its primary motive from making a profit at the expense of students to actually working for and benfitting those students. It needs to take a cue from Hoefnagels.
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There are two major things that are wrong in this opinion piece that show that you need to do some fact checking before you go on a rant.
First of all, the textbook industry is trying to move toward e-books. That's what they're pushing. The problem is an unresponsive audience... people want a book that they can hold in their hands. Until every textbook industry switches to only e-books, one won't because people will keep buying a printed version as long as it is available. It has to be economically sound for textbook companies to market solely e-books, and right now, it's not. It's going to take some time for the switch to occur.
Second of all, Dr. Hoefnagels is donating the royalties she earns from OU's students to a book scholarship... not from every student across the nation that purchases her textbook. She is making a profit, as she should be considering that book was her life for so many years and how much time she put into it. She's just not making a profit from the book at the campus she teaches at.
I think your entire argument is invalid now.
That's somewhat true, OU Daily, but for different reasons.
The textbook industry is a terrible business model because the consumer (customer) does not choose the product they want to buy (books) and the vendor (textbook company) does not consult the consumer(student).
Instead, the faculty and instructors are given the choice to upgrade editions, change texts, etc -- even though they're not the ones who end up paying for the books, the students are.
THAT is why your books cost so much, not because some money-hungry company is trying to take all of your cash. It's an inherently bad model. But it's pretty much the only one.
P.S., professors need money too! How do you think they get paid?? From the loads of money given to them by the school? Nope.
Give 'em a break, they're just trying to put food on the table.
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