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Re: Article on college texts



The Chronicle has a piece on this, too, which notes that the practice
has been discontinued at Penn State.

http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=4812&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


Very good piece in today's Wall Street Journal on the practice of
selling custom textbooks to colleges.  Some colleges receive
royalties on the sales.

Here is the first paragraph:

"College students, already struggling with soaring tuition bills
and expenses, are encountering yet another financial hit:
Publishers and schools are working together to produce "custom"
textbooks that can limit students' use of the money-saving trade
in used books. And in a controversial twist, some academic
departments are sharing in the profits from these texts."

The article is behind a pay wall; the headline is "As Textbooks
Go 'Custom,' Students Pay."

This piece is well worth reading and pondering.  Personally, I am
disturbed by the "kickback" (a term used in the article) aspect
of the practice.

Having said that, the WSJ has its numbers wrong.  It quotes a
widely reported figure for the average price of textbook
purchases, which is simply not true.  If you take that "average"
figure and multiply it by the number of U.S. college students,
you get a figure that is 3-4 times the size of the textbook
industry.  (The figure in the article for the size of the new
college textbook market in the U.S. is also incorrect.  Lies,
damned lies, and statistics.)

Joe Esposito