Re: Article on college texts

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

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