<p>Why do colleges publish lists of textbooks for classes ahead of time, but allow individual professors to undermine that by not announcing until the first day of class that they dont use the lists?
Students get books ahead of time, then find out they wasted money on some they dont need. And with professors first-day announcements, students cant get books right away due to availability and shipping time.
Why dont colleges simply require individual professors to publish their lists ahead of time?</p>
<p>Some professors may be required by their department to have, officially, SomeBookX. However, SomeBookX may really be a useless book of very little value, but the department head/undergrad studies/book committee likes it/owes a favor to the publisher/author. Thus, all Hamsterology classes must use SomeBookX “officially,” and the professor must list it on the syllabus, but he/she may simply not use it because they don’t “have time.”</p>
<p>The problem is that the requirement that textbooks lists be presented at registration were clearly written by people who have no experience actually teaching at the college level. It’s not so much a problem for the Spring semester, but it is an enormous problem for the Fall because the course offerings list is decided 5-6 months in advance. Two major issues can emerge:
- At an institution that uses a lot of adjuncts or visiting professors, sometimes they have absolutely no idea who will be teaching some of the courses when the offerings list comes out (thus the “Staff”). Since it is rather gauche for one professor to dictate text selection to another professor (sometimes this happens in composition or introductory classes, but I find it to be a largely distasteful practice), and no one knows who will teach the class, no one really knows the texts that will be required. Sometimes a department chair will submit the text list that was used in the last iteration of the course, but a new instructor will not be bound to that.
- If a professor is offering any new preparations, s/he will design those courses (including selecting the readings) in the summer (well, 95% of the time). I’m teaching two new courses, one in the Fall and one in the Spring. I’ve been working on both of them all summer, and while I’ll still make tweaks to the one that will debut in the Spring, major things like the text list will be set, so when I’m required to submit a text list in late October for a class that starts in early January I can do so with confidence. However, when I was asked to submit my text list for my new Fall class back in March or whatever, I submitted “no texts” because I had no idea what I wanted to use because I hadn’t thought about the specifics of the course yet. I will stick to what I submitted and use lots of journal articles posted to Blackboard, but the whole situation is just silly.</p>
<p>The requirement also means that those of us who feel bound to stick by what we told the bookstore lose out on opportunities to incorporate the most recent academic literature–which is what we’re SUPPOSED to be doing. A lot of academic books get published over a 5-6 month period and three very, very good books that would have been great for a Fall 2012 class I offered were published in Summer 2012, but I wasn’t allowed to require them for my students. It was their loss.</p>
<p>I know textbook prices are terrible in some disciplines, but that textbook list requirement is a very bad method for trying to solve the problem.</p>
<p>Most schools require the teachers to have some kind of text for the class, whether or not they actually use it. </p>
<p>I’ll frequently contact professors by email and ask them if the book is necessary, or I’ll ask them if an edition that is a few years old will suffice. They usually reply quickly and are happy to provide the information. Obviously that won’t work though in the case of a class that’s pending staffing.</p>
<p>I second all of the above information. Every college is different, so in my experience I have found that all my classes with textbooks assigned, with maybe one or two exceptions, have used the it in some manner. If you are particulary worried about spending money on textbooks, you could try: 1) renting them from a short period of time, 2) borrowing them from a friend, or 3) checking them out from your college’s library.</p>
<p>I’m afraid these answers don’t make sense to me.
purpleacorn, if the department head/undergrad studies/book committee simply likes it, that is a ridiculous reason and wasteful of the college. Also, how do schools owe favors to publishers/authors and how do these favors translate into more profits for the schools (as a school’s bottom line is to make enough money)?
SLACFac, I think I can summarize my reaction to your post as follows: Stop having such long deadlines for professors to submit book lists.</p>
<p>At my school, the individual professors are the ones who submit the book lists for their classes, and even then, they sometimes say that you don’t need the textbook. Often, they have it as a reference, but many will specifically state that they recommend the reading but they won’t test you on it. I’ve also had professors who didn’t have a textbook, but eventually added one after years of students asking for it. They still said they didn’t use it, but if you wanted a textbook, they recommended that one.</p>
<p>After my first quarter, I always waited until the first day of classes to figure out if I wanted to get the textbook or not (and you can also ask if you can use old editions, etc). The professors will also be able to tell you if you need access codes or things like that. I never had a problem getting the textbook, nor did you usually need the textbook for the first week or so. I ordered most of my books on Amazon and I had Amazon prime (free 2-day shipping), so I always got my books for cheaper prices and quickly enough to use it from my classes (and I was on the quarter system, so the pace is faster). The one time I needed to have the textbook quickly, I just bought it from the bookstore and then returned it after my book came.</p>
<p>Trust me, it’s just as frustrating to have the professors post the book list a couple days before classes start vs. months before (I don’t think my school had any deadline for professors because they posted it whenever they wanted to). At least if they post it early, you can budget for potential prices for the books, even if you don’t end up getting them.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate, but this is exactly why I tell everyone to either wait until classes start to see if you need the textbook (or would use it if you got it) or to make sure that you can return the textbook in the event that you don’t need it.</p>
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<p>The 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act requires that any institution receiving federal financial aid must provide a textbook list in time for registration. Listing “to be determined” is technically an option, but conversation with most of my friends at other institutions indicates that most places really try to minimize those TBDs, thus leading to some of the issues discussed in this thread. </p>
<p>Really, the best thing to do is email the professor about three weeks in advance and ask after the textbook list–you can discuss editions, translations and all that good stuff with the person who will know best.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the answers, especially the insight from SLACFac.
My conclusion: Colleges waste time and money on this. They should list books as “to be determined” until individual professors post what they actually require.</p>
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<p>Just wanted to say that this is pretty much what my school does, and we still had the same problems you described (listing a textbook that is never used).</p>
<p>Or even worse, making you buy a reader when 3/4 of it can be found free online.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what a lot of schools do. My school doesn’t publish the book lists until the professor submits/approves the book that is going to be used. The problem is that the book still simply isn’t used in many situations. I don’t know if it’s the same at every school, but in most schools, professors are REQUIRED to have a textbook, or at least some kind of mandatory material. Given that they have to submit some kind of book for the book list, they really don’t have any way of telling you whether or not it’s necessary, until the first day of class.</p>
<p>That’s why it’s a good idea to email them and clarify it.</p>