Sen. John Miller sticks it to students
By Brian Kirwin | Friday, January 29th, 2010 | PolicySen. John Miller must be remembering his old bosses fondly. He’s put in a bill that would allow colleges to sell textbooks that publishers gave them for free (SB 141). That’s one heck of a markup!
Nevermind the costs of these textbooks are already outrageous. Nevermind that commuting college students would be forking out gobs of money if Miller’s gas tax increase is approved.
Nevermind that Miller is only weeks past being employed by Christopher Newport University. Looks like old habits die hard.
I usually don’t post on bills that are destined to go nowhere, but since everyone is watching elected officials who submit bills concerning employers, this money grab bill caught my eye.
Colleges shouldn’t be requesting or accepting free materials, slapping a price tag on it, and making students pay for it. Period!
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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4 Responses to "Sen. John Miller sticks it to students"
Publishers send free samples to professors all the time. I just received two copies of an accounting text that may or may not be used in the future at TCC.
Am I to understand that it would be a crime to donate the extra book?
Brian, in your eagerness to attack a very good Virginia Senator, John Miller, you’ve made a fool of yourself on this one.
This isn’t about the college screwing students. What the bill addresses is the question of what to do with REVIEW COPIES of books sent to professors.
Apparently some schools had a policy that the REVIEW COPY of a book could not be sold or donated to the school, so many of these brand new books were just tossed out, or sat in the professors’ offices collecting dust.
I am not sure why we need a state law to address what should be easily resolved as an internal administrative matter. In my case, I taught at a couple of colleges in other states and I generally donated the review copies that I received to our campus library. It never occurred to me to sell the things on eBay or Amazon.
One problem that arises from the bill is that it makes no exception for INSTRUCTOR editions. If a college professor puts an Instructor Edition out for sale, then students at other campuses will have all of the homework questions along with the answers, if they can buy the instructor edition.
To me, this is a non-issue that doesn’t warrant a state law to resolve the issue. If, for example, CNU didn’t want professors placing review copies in the campus library, those professors could always seek permission to donate the book to a local library, or some other suitable site.
The REVIEW COPIES are editions for future use and do not compete with current editions.
If John Miller wants to make a real change and save students money, then establish an online library of suitable texts so that everyone can access the books online without charge. If Virginia created an online textbook data warehouse, there is no reason why we should ever have to buy textbooks again. With all of the talent we have in our Virginia colleges, professors could publish texts on every subject in a Virginia textbook warehouse, then since the text would be public domain, the knowledge would be free to all citizens.
I have no problem giving students free books that cost nothing in the first place.
They shouldn’t be sold.
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