Books' royalties create stir among faculty, students

Students dish out hundreds of dollars for books each semester. Sometimes they are surprised to find the author of the textbook and the professor share the same name.\nA mistake? \nNot exactly. \nWith the wide array of classes available today, professors sometimes find themselves creating their own textbooks to best suit the needs of their course topic. But when a professor requires a student to buy something the professor will receive royalties for, students and faculty are presented with several ethical issues. \nPsychology professor and former IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm, whose book "Intimate Relationships" was published in 1985, still assigns the updated version of the text today -- but not for the royalties, she said. \n"I think that if there had been another text that was competitive, I would have used it, because it is somewhat of a conflict of interest to assign your own book when you get royalties on it," she said. "But in this case, I didn't think there was another choice." \nBrehm said once the fourth edition of her book comes out, which will be edited by other authors, she will no longer receive royalties.\nThere is no outlined approval process for textbook selection, said David Nordloh, associate dean of faculties. Occasionally certain books come under suspicion, prompting an investigation. Nordloh said the review process was established a few years ago when some students objected to a required textbook authored by the professor. He said in that case, the professor was found to be within his rights under the University's conflict of interest policy.\nMaria Kennedy, a graduate student studying journalism, said generalizing professors as profiteers is unfair, and most are not doing it to make money.\n"I'm sure it's true in some cases, but there are excellent professors here," Kennedy said.\nAccording to the National Association of College Stores, textbook authors receive an average of 11.6 percent of the income generated from the sale of their textbooks. Professors do not make any money, however, when a used book is sold. \nProfessor C. Randall Powell, who teaches business career planning and placement, also wrote his own book. Powell said he did not think the money he received for assigning the book created a conflict of interest. \n"Very few people who write textbooks make much money," he said. "It takes an enormous amount of time to write a textbook. I mean, like, two years for me. That's why I say on a per-hourly basis, professors don't make much money on textbooks."\nAnn Gellis, associate vice president for research compliance, said though there is no University policy concerning textbook royalties, the state law does regulate professors from abusing the system. \n"If, under state law, teachers who assign their own textbooks to their classes and get royalties over $250, we recommend that the professor file a state conflict of interest form," she said. "In the form, under the state law, the contracts over $250 would require approval to make sure that it's a fair transaction."\nPaul Hazel, director of the IU Bookstore, recalls one incident in which a professor intentionally profited from his textbook. He said that faculty member supposedly failed to report which books he needed until after book buyback in order to sell more new books and attain more royalties.\nFor the most part, however, Hazel said he feels strongly that professors keep their students' best interests in mind. \n"Because of the price of textbooks, our faculty try to keep costs low for students," he said. "I just don't think it's an issue on this campus. There are issues, like publishers who try to do everything they can to stop us from selling used books, but I really feel our faculty are more responsible than that." \nFreshman Kyle Williams said he was not concerned with professors profiting from their books, but noted professor-authored texts offered a limited perspective.\n"He would know the material ... but it would also be pretty subjective," he said. \nRichard Wilk, a professor of anthropology, said he wrote his textbook, "Economies and Cultures," because there was no other text available for his course. He said he believes students are at an advantage when professors create a book for their course. \n"With the textbook market, as competitive as it is, it means that they're probably a pretty damn good teacher if they've written a textbook in that subject," he said. "It pretty much means you've got an expert teaching that course, and someone who really cares about teaching." \nAlthough he said his book has provided students with many advantages, Wilk said he has made no profit from his book -- the $12 it generated in its first year was given back to the University -- and has actually come at a personal cost. \n"I get a pretty positive feedback from my (students) ... but my colleagues hated it. And I almost didn't get promoted because they didn't want to count it towards my promotion," he said. "The other drawback, for me, was that in order to have the time to write it, I had to take a semester off without pay, and that kind of put my family in hardship"