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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
6A NEWS TEXTBOOKS (CONTINUED)
WEDNESDAY.OCTOBER 7,2009
TEXTBOOKS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
other universities
However, the policy explicitly says faculty members aren't required to report royalty receipts to the University unless earnings are more than $10,000.
Although Wolf Wendel wasn't involved in creating the policy and doesn't know its origins, she said she assumed the policy was "created to prevent faculty from profiting off their students."
The University of Missouri has a similar policy that requires Missouri professors to donate proceeds from required textbooks to the school or non-profit entities. Missouri's policy is also self-enforced, said Christian Basi, Missouri spokesperson.
The University's policy is online in the Policy Library, which means faculty members would have to first know the policy existed to find it online. Wolt Wendel said.
Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska do not have policies regarding instructor-authorized materials.
Most professors said they used their own textbooks in their classes to benefit the students.
CLASS USE
"I can talk to students about the content in a richer, more varied way than I could if I were using some one else's book," said Don Stull, anthropology professor.
Stull co-authored "Slaughterhouse Blues," a book about the meat packing industry that sells for $39. He requires the
book for both "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology" and for "Meat and Drink in America." Stull has 309 students in the introduction class this semester and had 18 in the Spring 2008 Meat and Drink course. Stull also said he was not aware of the policy but that he voluntarily donates a percentage of royalties to charity each year.
Accounting professor Tim Shaftet, who requires three textbooks for "Financial Accounting I" said he updates his textbooks every year to keep his students ahead of the curve. According to the University Registrar, 577 students are enrolled in Shaftet's "Financial Accounting I" course this semester. Combined, the three books cost $64.40.
Shaftel said he was aware of the policy and makes his donations, but wouldn't say how much he donated or to whom.
Holmes requires "Psychology: The Science of Behavior and Mental Processes" for his "General Psychology" class, which has about 1,000 students, and his honors version of the class, which has about 50 students. He requires his book "Abnormal Psychology" for a class of the same title that had 374 students enrolled last semester. New copies of Holmes' books cost $35 and $88.75, respectively.
Holmes said he uses his own textbooks because the books relate directly to his lectures. He also said he changed publishers four times to negotiate the lowest price, despite taking a hit on royalties. A similar
The University Press of Kansas, a non-profit university press operation, publishes both paperback and hardback books, said director Fred Woodward.
Although the University Press is not an actual textbook publisher, he said, the usual contract for a textbook gives the author 15 percent of the customer's price.
HOW ROYALTIES WORK
For example, a book selling for $100 at the KU Bookstore would earn the author $15 per book. The author's royalty would be reduced to between $7.50 and $10 for a paperback edition.
Woodward said the royalties for a paperback book published at the University Press are between 5 percent and 8 percent of the net selling price. He said textbook stores usually receive a discount of 20 to 30 percent.
A book that cost a student $20 would cost the bookstore $14 to $16. Royalties for one of those paperback books would be between 70 cents and $1.28.
He said hardcover books receive royalties of 10 percent the net selling price.
Authors do not receive royalties for purchases of used books.
The University Press typically pays royalties as a percentage of the net selling price —the price the bookstore buys for the book as opposed to what students pay for the book, Woodward said.
— Alv Van Dyke
introductory psychology textbook,
he said, would cost $100
He also said between 10 and 12 other colleges and as many as 400,000 students used his textbook, Holmes' colleague, Stephen Ilardi, also uses Holmes' book for "Abnormal Psychology"
"I would look foolish if I didn't use my own textbook in my class," Holmes said.
Joe Shannon, Kansas City, Mo, junior, said he took Holmes "General Psychology" class last fall as a general education course. He said he didn't like the idea of professors requiring their books for class.
"It's like paying twice for the same information," he said. "We are already paying so much per credit hour and now we have to pay the professor even more to buy his book."
Shannon also said knowing the instructor wrote the materials limited discussion from other perspectives.
Although few professors are aware of the policy, several said they donated to the University or other non profits anyway.
DONATIONS
Jennifer Weber, history professor, said she spent five years researching and writing "Copperheads," a book about the anti-war democrats during the Civil War.
Weber started working at the University in 2005, a year before her book was published. But she said she didn't start using her book in her "The Civil War in America, 1828-1877" class until Spring 2009.
"I hadn't assigned it specifically because I feel like there's kind of a conflict of interest there," she said.
After she started assigning her book in class at the students' request, Weber said she still felt uncomfortable profiting from the sales, even though she said she earned about $1 per new book.
To compensate. Weber said she estimates the proceeds from requiring her book and donates the sum each year to the Civil War Battlefield Trust.
Weber said she was not aware of the University policy.
"I'm glad to hear they have that policy," she said. "I've been a little bit troubled. I don't want to feel like I'm exploiting my students."
— Edited by Samantha Foster
David McLeod, left, Kitchener, Ontario and Rafe Brown, showcase their recent discoveries. McLeod named the species he discovered in Thailand limonectas megastomias and Brown named his discovery from the Philippines limonectes femeri.
FROGS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
species he discovered in 1994. Brown said he found his "bullfrog-sized" specimens on Mindanao Island in the Phillippines.
Both species, Brown said, are "sit-and-wait" predators who lunge at their prey and eat it whole.
"They're big voracious predators," Brown said. "They pretty much eat anything that's smaller than them that comes around."
Brown said the "fangs" were not actually teeth, but instead "prostheses" that the frogs develop as secondary sex characteristics.
Brown said male fanged frogs developed more prominent prostheses than females. He speculated they most likely used their fangs for fighting against one another for mating rights.
Although Brown said the species he discovered had not reached the same level of publicity outside the scientific community because its location was lesser known, the finding still had noteworthy significance.
"It's all guesswork at this point." Brown said. "We know so little about their biology that we don't really know what they do with them at this point."
"Iimagine finding an undiscovered species as big as a bullfrog in North America," Brown said. "That would be a very big deal. There's these places in parts of Asia that are so poorly known and so seldom visited by scientists that big large bodied animals have gone unnoticed by science for the last hundred years."
The Natural History Museum has displayed video footage from the discovery McLeod made this fall both on its Web site and in its fourth floor lobby, Exhibits Director Bruce Scherting, said.
Sherting said he hoped that by spring, the museum would update its Web site to display research by McLeod, Brown and other researchers on the biodiversity staff more prominently. He said he had also discussed plans to redesign the sixth floor to entirely dedicate it to showcasing their research.
"I think most people actually don't realize that there is a research component to the museum." Schertling said. "There's kind of a mismatch between what's on exhibit and what actually goes on in the building."
Both McLeod and Brown said they hoped to continue to contribute to the study of the limnoctes, or fanged, genus of frogs.
Brown said this time, he wanted to extend the research to include genetic studies for frog species that visually could not be distinguished from one another.
He said regardless of what he found, he would always remember the excitement of recognizing his first new species in the field.
"You sort of say halleluah, and youre the person that gets to choose the scientific name." Brown said. "You have a moment of discovery."
—Edited by Tim Burgess
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