Instructors on college campuses often request review copies
of textbooks from publishers. The idea behind this is to give instructors a
chance to consider several different texts to find the best fit for the course
he or she is going to teach.
But sometimes, instructors who request such review copies
have no intention of using them for courses.
A faculty member at a Southern college writes that
faculty at his school "openly" sell the textbooks they receive as
review copies for a tidy profit to used book buyers who prowl the campus.
"Some of these books are ordered and never
opened," he writes, "which leads me to suspect that it's part of a
scheme that defrauds textbook publishers and possibly drives up the cost of
publishing textbooks."
Still, the faculty member wonders if being able to buy
such re-sold review copies online at a significant discount might partially
address how overwhelmed many college students are by the hidden costs of higher
education, such as textbooks.
"Isn't this actually an altruistic, ethical practice
on the part of their instructors?" he asks. "Or should we be
concerned instead that this is a fraudulent practice by those instructors, who
should know they are modeling a deceptive behavior to their students?"
Adding to the issue, the faculty member writes is that
occasionally publishers will promote textbooks by mailing copies to whole
departments.
"Are faculty obligated to return these unsolicited
books when it's more convenient (and profitable) to just sell them to
buyers?" he asks.
About five years ago, I posed a question on the blog for
this column asking readers whether it was OK for a professor to sell a copy of
a textbook he or she had received as a free review copy. It turned out to be
among the top-read blog posts ever. Perhaps the issue hits a nerve because
college costs are so high and textbook prices can be staggering.
If an instructor requests a review copy of a text for
possible use in a course, but he or she has no intention of using the book for
that course, that's deceptive and wrong. If, in requesting a review copy of a
book, an instructor agrees with the publisher that he or she will not re-sell
the book, then the right thing is to honor that commitment.
If, however, books are sent to an instructor unsolicited
by a publisher, and no agreement is made not to re-sell them, then technically,
the department members may be within their right to do what they want with the
texts.
It would seem that a forward-thinking department might
find a way to use any proceeds from the sale of review copies books to help
defray the costs of textbooks for their students.
Even if the textbooks referred to in the reader's
questions are not being used for classes, if a pool were created in which any
proceeds could be deposited, those funds might be used to subsidize the cost of
textbooks actually required for courses.
The right thing, however, is not to behave fraudulently
and misrepresent the true reason for requesting a review copy. If an instructor
has no intention of considering a book for use in class and instead simply
plans to re-sell the copy, it's wrong.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School.
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.