Readers: a pretty penny
By Jamie Hsiung
Jan. 15, 2003 9:00 p.m.
With the no-return policy on course readers and
textbook-comparable prices, many course readers often fail to
alleviate the financial woes of the starving college student at
UCLA.
First-year sociology student Marlene Mena was shocked when she
discovered that she had to purchase a $65 course reader in addition
to the required textbooks in her class.
“That’s a lot of money,” Mena said. “I
didn’t expect it to be that much.”
The biggest reason for the instillment of the the no-return
policy on course readers by Academic Publishing Services is due to
the concern that students will photocopy them, said Neil Yamaguchi,
director of academic support.
“Textbooks are much larger and harder to photocopy than
course readers,” Yamaguchi said.
But some students still manage to find ways to photocopy course
readers under the frown of APS, saying they split the total cost
with friends.
“I just bought (a course reader) and saw some people
photocopying theirs ““ now I want to photocopy mine,”
said Michelle Jhun, a second-year anthropology student.
APS, the department of the Associated Students of UCLA in charge
of creating course readers, sells 52,000 course readers
annually.
Course Reader Materials, another popular venue for course
readers, adheres to the same no-return policy as APS.
“It’s how we keep the cost low so that we’re
not stuck with an overstock of readers,” said Sharon Tompao,
administrative receptionist.
Tompao said the leftover course readers are then recycled.
Similarly, ASUCLA’s leftover course readers are destroyed as
well.
Fifth-year microbiology and economics student Sriram Ryali said
he thought the $60 course reader he needed to purchase for a
history class was ridiculous, adding that the no-return policy is
an inconvenience to students who might change their minds about a
course.
“I felt bad for the people who later dropped the
class,” Ryali said.
The pricing of course readers, which can cost students anywhere
from $5 to $75 is based on printing costs, the number of pages, and
royalty fees paid to the publisher, said Margie Lam, assistant
manager of academic publishing.
For every page of a textbook used in the course reader, the
original textbook publisher receives 12 cents.
Though many students wish for a buyback program where they can
sell back their used readers, it will not be happening because
courses’ readers change each quarter, said UCLA Retail Store
Director Keith Schoen.
“It’s really up to the professor,” Schoen
said. “We’re really not dictating what’s being
updated.”
Musicology professor Raymond Knapp said he lets his students
know the relevance of the course reader to the class so that they
can make up their own mind as to whether or not they want to
purchase them.
Schoen also pointed out that some professors combine multiple
textbook articles into a single reader, making course readers
substantially cheaper than textbooks.
Sociology professor Nicolette Hart said she tends to replace
textbooks with course readers for her class.
“The thing with textbooks in sociology is that
they’re full of colored pictures, and they’re big and
heavy,” Hart said. “They oversimplify the issues, and
they don’t encourage students to be critical in their
reading.”
Hart said when she personally selects the readings that
constitute her course reader, she is on the lookout for
controversial articles that would promote discussion.
Sociology lecturer Robert Hennig is also in praise of the
advantages of course readers.
“You can include lots of perspectives that you can’t
include in (textbooks),” Hennig said. “It allows you to
have more flexibility on different perspectives.”
Sometimes, the incentive for providing course readers could go
beyond providing supplemental viewpoints.
Professors who write their entire course reader ““ such as
chemistry laboratory manuals ““ get an average commission of
$5 to $10 for every reader sold, Lam said. However, she added that
professors do not usually do this.
Though the injustices of the no-return course reader policy may
infuriate some students, first-year undeclared student Jennifer
Fang found the lighter side.
“You know you can’t sell it back, so you can totally
highlight, mark it, and draw in them as much as you want,”
Fang said.
