University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, February 1, 1989
5
Franchises buy, sell notes Copyrighted excerpts can't be sold
by Mario Talkington Kansan staff writer
Entrepeneurs, take note
Companies that buy and sell students' class notes are growing in popularity at many uni universities, selling thousands of copies each semesters in some cases even developing plans to franchise to other colleges.
And while reaction to the companies from instructors has been mixed, the businesses' owners insist that they supplement a valuable supplement to students.
Mark Erwin, a former Great Bend graduate student who helped found Class Notes this semester at KU, said the notes helped students who added a class late, missed a day because of the pandemic and supplement to their own notes.
Kathy Gatton, one of two partners for Grade A Notes at Ohio State University, said that even the professors could benefit from the business.
"It gives the professors a chance to review their own lectures, to see if their point is getting across." Gatton said.
Gatton said she planned for Grade A Notes, which was formed less than two years ago, to have as many as 10 locations within the next five years.
Typically, a note-selling business operates off-campus, independent of the university but with the instructor's approval. The business pays students to take notes each day in a particular class. The notes are then typewritten, copied and sold to other students for about $2 a copy, or about
$25 for the entire semester's notes.
Paradign, a business that serves the University of Texas at Austin, sold more than 3,000 semester notes subscriptions during Fall 1988, said Diane Gonzalez, who works part time for the business.
Gonzalez, a senior at Texas-Austin, said she didn't agree with instructors' complaints that note-selling businesses caused students to miss
"I've always felt that students who (buy the notes and) don't go to class wouldn't go anyway," she said. "A lot of the subscribers we get are the 'A' and 'B' students who want every advantage they can get."
To avoid violating university rules, Paradigm only buys and sells notes from a class when it has the instructor's permission. Gonzalez said.
"It's been here so long, it's just a part of the university," she said.
Copyright laws make an instructor's lecture his property and give him the right to decide who can reproduce that lecture for profit.
Gonzalez said that Paradign had been selling notes for 13 years without any problems from the university's administration.
Dario Robertson, KU professor of law, said that businesses that got instructor's permission could still run into legal trouble.
Ontonberg said that an instructor could be violating copyright laws if he gave permission to sell notes from his lecture and it contained copyrighted material from other sources, such as textbook excerpts.
Criss Dolan, manager of Paradign, said she did not know of any instance when the business bought notes that included copyrighted material from a source other than the instructor.
"If a professor were using copyrighted material in his lecture, he would probably ask us not to write it down." Dolan said.
Studentprint, which services students at the University of Wisconsin, requests permission from up to 100 instructors each semester out of their classes, said Wachaele Pochanayon, who works for the serv-
Between 40 and 50 of those typically said yes, Pochanayon said.
Gonzalez said that while some instructors refused to give permission, students were generally receptive to the idea of buying and selling their notes from a business.
Because of the need for university approval and instructor's permission, a new note-selling business might take several years to show a profit, she said.
Gonzalez said that although businesses such as Paradigm were growing in number, buying and selling was not the way to earn a quick buck.
"Students generally don't have a negative response to this sort of thing," she said.
"You need a lot to start out," she said. "You need a lot of people, and there's a lot of red tape. It's not a quick way to make money, but once you get going, it's pretty solid."
Medical school loses former assistant dean, Mahlon Delp
by a Kansan reporter
Mahon H. Delp, a former assistant dean of the College of Health Sciences, died of cancer Sunday at his home in Kansas City, Kan. He was 85.
Delp, Merriam resident, was a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center from 1938 until he retired in 1974.
postgraduate medicine; and assistant dean of the college.
In the college, Delp served in the positions of professor of the undergraduate school of medicine; professor, director and assistant dean of
He also was the chairman of the department of medicine from 1960 to 1969.
Dulp received the Distinguished Service Citation and the Distinguished Unit Award. The Dulp Pavilion at the Med Center was named in his honor.
He received his doctorate degree from KU and served his residency at the Med Center.
Delp is survived by his wife, Beth; a daughter, Virginia Anderson, Colorado Springs, Colo.; three brothers, LaRue Dulp, Tepawe; Waym Delp,hmcd; and Dewain Delp, Lagua, Calif.; and two granddaughters.
Delp was born near Edmond, Kan. and had lived in the Kansas City area since 1932.
The funeral will be today at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, 6630 Nall St. in Mission.
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