Textbooks

Just done the second day of classes of the spring semester. I've said if before, always at this time of the semester exactly, but I'll say it again: profs should damn-well look up the cost of the textbooks they're assigning students to buy, before deciding on them as the class text.

The problem really lies in the fact that profs get texts for free. Either the university pays for their copy, or they receive the textbook as promotion (and profs receive a LOT of unsolicited textbooks from publishers), so cost is of little concern for profs regardless. Second, and this is perhaps the only noble of the reasons, profs, at least the good ones, are on the lookout for the BEST text - with the best content, without regards of the price. BAD profs just accept the text used my previous iterations of the course, taught by other professors, without regard to the quality or cost of the book.

This is really a rant, spurred on by the fact that all of my textbooks this semester are near or over $100 a pop (a couple up to $150). I'm looking at $400 of textbooks that I can't afford this semester, and it blows. To add insult to injury, profs always spit out a less than half-hearted 'oh, sorry about the cost of the text' - though it's obvious they had put little consideration into this factor, leaving debt-loaded students to foot the bill.

In a day and age of computers and the internet, it's more than feasible that profs could find ALL readings for their classes online, but, possibly because of age (and dislike for, or disenchantment with, technology[many prefer reading off of paper]) they're more likely to pick something off the shelf.

Boo-urns I say to all this. Bring on the photocopier.