Professors decry, fight 'business' of note taking

Five years ago, selling class notes for profit was a big business. The Note Network, a local organization, paid and recruited students at the beginning of each semester to take notes, which were then made available to other students for a fee. \nThose who signed up were eager to make money simply by going to class and taking notes. Those willing to pay could literally afford to not attend class. \nProfessor of political science Christine Barbour was one of the first professors to take a stand against the Note Network, banning its practices from her class. \n"It's just another shortcut," she said. "Note taking is a thing students need to learn. If another student takes notes for you, you are not learning the substance of the class or note-taking skills."\nBarbour makes it clear to her classes that anyone caught buying or selling notes will automatically fail. \nAlthough the Note Network no longer exists as a business, the market for note-selling does. Because the practice has not waned, an increasing number of professors have begun to take a hard-lined stance against it. \nPolitical science professor Gerald Wright defended Barbour's policy, one that he, too, has adopted. "The selling of notes is offered as a shortcut that will avoid the hard work of learning," Wright said. "Those shortcuts do not work. If they did, we'd just publish a set of notes, have students memorize those and call it a class."\nWright also believes that when students purchase notes from outside sources, the notes may not adequately reflect everything covered in class and may do the student more of a disservice. \n"Students think if they pay for notes, they will be better than their own," he said. "They are not. We have found copies from previous semesters that do not reflect new material and concepts introduced into the lectures. Some from the current semester are at best misleading."\nProfessors admit it is difficult to catch offenders of their note-taking policies. Professor Russell Hanson tells his classes he will randomly collect notes to monitor if they are being bought or sold. \nMany professors have even begun to post their own version of class notes online as a way to compete with possible note-sellers. \nThe IU Code of Student Ethics does not spell out a stance either way on the topic of note-selling. Discretion is reserved to individual professors, said Associate Dean of Students Pam Freeman. \n"If a faculty member wants to forbid someone in the class from taking notes for profit, that's their prerogative," she said. "Faculty members really have the final word on academic misconduct."\nProfessor Marjorie Hershey states clearly in her syllabus that "taking notes for profit is considered a form of academic dishonesty. Anyone found doing so will be given an F for the course." \nIU has not created a guideline for the selling of notes for profit, in part because there is a vigorous debate over students' rights to sell their notes. There are some who feel that because the actual notes are in the student's possession, the student may do whatever he wishes with them. \n"It's a tricky issue," said professor of law Fred Cate, who specializes in the area of academic misconduct. "When you write down what someone else says, who does it belong to? The law focuses not on who says it, but who committed it to paper first."\nBarbour believes lecture material she uses belongs exclusively to her. \n"No doubt the paper is theirs," she said. "But they're making money off my intellectual property"