Vol. 99, No.13 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED SINCE 1880 BY THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Wednesday September 14, 1988
TEXTBOOK TRAUMA
Major often determines how much students pay
Attending the University of Kansas requires students to buy stacks of expensive textbooks.
By Cindy Harger Kansan staff writer
Choosing a major will affect not only how much a students will be worth after graduation but also the amount they spend on textbooks and supplies.
Leon Schieber, an architectural engineering major, said that he usually spent about $500 a semester on books and supplies.
"I wanted to get both architectural engineering and architecture degrees, but because of the money, I ended up to "to," said Schieber. Stanley senior
He said that he had spent about $220 this semester on books for four courses and that he would spend at least another $200 on supplies for projects. Those sup- plies included core, core, core blades and drawing pencils.
"I thought it would be cheaper this year because I don't have as many studios as I did last year, but it's not," Schieber said.
He said he usually spent the same amount every semester.
Schieber's courses require four books, which would cost about $193 at the KU Bookstore and $200 at Bookstore. The prices are for three new books and one used book.
Ronald Helfeng, chairman of the architectural engineering team, said he could how high the expenses of the architectural engineering student were compared to the costs.
"It could be more expensive because you have all the supplies and stuff for the architectural design side of it and texts for the engineering side of it," Helms said.
On the other hand, Kevin Waters, a Prairie Village senior majoring in health, physical education and recreation, thought he had never seen a need for costs. He spent about $110 on books and supplies and didn't
foresee having to spend much more.
"The architecture and art students seem to spend a lot more time studying on campus than something else for their classes or projects," Waters said. "I'm probably in the lower half of majors in terms of cost."
Complimentary texts cause controversy
Kansan staff writer
3v Cindy Harger
Students might think they are getting a good deal when they can purchase a used book that looks like new, but often, the book is part of a questionable money-making operation.
Underneath the black and white sticker that reads "Another Quality Used Book," there often is a seal stating that the book is for "promotional use only" or not for sale.
Some officials in the textbook industry said that the sale of these books added to the overall demand.
"The students pay for it in the end," saidandy Parker, assistant general manager at the company.
"The students pay for the business aspects, including the freezes. It's all added up into the total cost."
Throughout the year, textbook publishers mail complimentary copies of new books to college professors across the country so they can examine them. Those books often find their way into libraries when teachers sell them to bookstores, independent solicitors or wholesale book companies.
Whether it should be legal or ethical for professors to sell their complimentary copies has become an issue within the textbook industry and on campuses across the country.
"It's ethically wrong, and, in some cases, illegal for a professor to sell books given as examination copies," said Parker Ladd, director of the Association of American Publishers.
"If he doesn't choose to use them, he should return the books or give them to the students or teachers."
Ladd is sending an AAP report on complimentary examination copies to faculty senates of colleges and universities across the country, assuring them to prohibit the faculty from selling books.
The solicitor sells the book to a national or local book wholesaler, who usually covers up the markings that distinguish the book as a complimentary conv.
The report states that complimentary books reach the market in the following way:
The wholesaler sells the book to a bookstore
■ The faculty member sells the complimentary copy to a sister on campus.
in about half the retail price
of the book to a student
at least 87% of the retail cost.
"Thus the instructor, the middleman, and the bookstore each make some profit," the report stated. "The student often purchases the book at a low rate, but the student buys a sale but has borne the cost of manufacturing the book; and the author, who has perhaps sold a book, receives no royalty or other compensation."
Ladd said that publishers lost an estimated $80 million a year and the professors who wrote the books: lost $10 million a year in royalties, which causes book prices to rise.
re also said that authors might be discouraged from researching and writing books
Ken Cugger, professor of business at KU, is in management of process of writing a textbook on business.
Cogger said he understood why professors would sell their complimentary copies but that
Please see BOOKS, p.10
KU engineers claim awards
Program defeats top schools
By Katy Monk
Korean still united
Kansan staff write
The University of Kansas aerospace engineering program beat some of the country's top engineering firms and two national aerospace design awards.
For the third time in three years, KU claimed the crown in the AIAA/General Dynamics Team Aircraft Design Competition. Another KU team won the first AIAA/AirBrake Design Competition and the second Design Competition ever offered.
AIAA is the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a professional engineering society.
Schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology Georgia State University Mississippi State Polytechnic University Pomona participated in the competition.
Teams had from mid-January to mid-June to complete their projects. The results were announced earlier this month.
Nikos Mills, Albuquerque, N.M.
senior, was part of the winning
aircraft design team. He said winning
the competition was a great honor
"It's something that is recognized throughout the industry," he said. Norman N.G. AlaA's director of student activities, said commuters
submitted 100 page design proposals o a panel of judges. The proposals were judged on organization of presentation, originality, practical application, feasibility and technical content.
This year, the KU team's proposal was judged best of 25 proposals from 17 schools. Ng said.
Jan Koskam, Deane E. Ackers professor of engineering and faculty manager for the aircraft design the individual or team aircraft design competition, or both, all eight members of the group.
KU's team designed a plane capable of staying at 25,000 feet for 72 hours. The aircraft has a sensing equipment and a crew of two. The plane would have both military and civilian capabilities.
Sareed Farkot, associate professor of aerospace engineering and adviser to the engine design team, said that KU's engine design team beat six proposals from five other schools including second-place University of Oklahoma, which XASH had commended for excellence in aerospace engineering.
The KU team designed an afterburning turbotan jet engine. The engine met competition require-
Please see ENGINEER p. 5, col.4
Justice says court ruling could turn
The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The author of *Decision to Legalize Aboriginal Court* decision raising allegation of case of Roe vs. Wade yesterday said that the 1985 term of the court could be overturned.
Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who wrote the 1973 decision overturning restrictive anti-abortion laws in Texas, indicated the decision could turn on how faithful new Justice Anthony Kennedy was to the judicial doctrine of "stare decisis," a policy of courts not to deter settlers from law.
"The next question is, Will Roe冲. Wade去 down the drain?" Blackman, 79, told a class of first-year law students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; "I think there's a case," he said. "This term you can count the votes."
In an apparent reference to Kenny, Blackmun said, "One never knows what a new justice's attitude is." He adds, "It is now 15 years old."
No abortion case is scheduled for
argument before the court, but there
will be a hearing before the judge,
that the court will look for one now
that the panel includes three appoin-
tments.
Blackmun has his major opinion in Roe vs. Wade. "has been criticized from all points of the compass," but he wouldn't change it much if he were to write it today. He decided the case primarily on the basis of a woman's constitutional right to decide what to do with her body.
Blackmun gave no more details about the possibility of the decision being overturned.
Pledge opens House
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives, trying to juggle a hot political issue, broke with tradition yesterday by opening its session with recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker Jim Wright said the pledge, which has become an item of controversy in the presidential campaign, is a reminder of the floor at the beginning of each day's
session until Congress adjourns next month.
But Wright also lashed out at Republicans who have to pay for the education they seek, such efforts are "childish, immature and mean-spirited as a person can
Rep. John Rowland, R-Cconn, brought the pledge squabble to the House chamber last week, called it a historic moment.
KU observatory in need of repair; Astronomers hope for new location
By Debbie McMahon
Kansan staff writer
Unsafe conditions, lack of confor-
mation to fire codes and inaccessible
area for construction, unaccom-
patible to the closing of the Clyde T.
Tombaugh Observatory to the roof of
Stephen Shawl, professor of physics and astronomy and director of the observatory, said that the cost of a four-month observation was estimated at $157.000.
KU's observatory was closed to the public in July, and predictions of when it will be reopened aren't even in the stars.
The astronomy observatory has been open to the public on Friday nights for about the past 15 years, supervised by members of the Astronomy monitors of Lusanne and enthusiasts could look at the stars.
Shawl said that he had received a letter from someone who triponed on the weathered surface of Lindley Hall's roof last summer.
John P Davidson, physics and astronomy department chairman, said the observatory also was closed
so that it could conform with fire codes and be accessible to the handicapped.
"Most of our members complain about the light pollution at the observatory," said Albert Paulg, Englewood Chiffs, N.J., senior and president of Astronomy Associates "With the lights from the Art and Design building and the baseball field near Aller and the observatory as like as for as being an observatory.
A meeting with Davidson, the facili-
ties planning department and the visi-
tor of the office in the next few weeks will
determine the fate of the observa-
tion.
Some astronomy enthusiasts think moving the location away from campus and the lights of the city would be a good idea.
Alison Klicee, Overland Park sophomore, said, "The light pollution is terrible. I'd like to see the observatory get moved."
"The equipment is really good, but it needs maintenance."
Students echoed Gapud's points about the lighting.
"But the problem with moving it to
some place away from city lights is that the department would have to buy a large amount of land around it and wouldn't be a stadium built next to it.
Alen Wiechert, director of facilities planning, said that such a move was an option but that decisions about the future were reviewed until some time before the end of the year. He wasn't sure when the facility would be reopened to meet it.
"The money hasn't yet been identified," Wiechert said "We need to find a source."
Gapud said that because most club members weren't students, they weren't allowed to use the observatory. He rift among the members, he said.
To solve the problem, the club has decided to use portable telescopes and hold viewing sessions at the museum. Their first meeting will be Oct. 7.
Interested astronomers and amateurs are invited to join the club on the Douglas County Fairgrounds in
Please see STARS.o 16.col 4
Lights from surrounding campus buildings and the field lights at Hoglund-Maupin Stadium interfere with the view through observatory telescopes on top of Lindley Hall.
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