Radical Professors Impose Idiosyncratic Bibliographic Procurement Proclivities Upon Students

One of the accepted realities of college life is that students often have to shell out a significant wad of cash on nearly useless textbooks. This unpleasant reality is tempered by the hope that, if all goes well, students can sell the texts back to the campus bookstore for a pittance at the end of the semester.

However, a number of professors at the University of Maryland have disrupted what little market beauty remains in this transaction by erecting additional artificial barriers to free exchange by imposing their economic sensibilities onto where assigned texts can be acquired instead of leaving the decision up to the student.

At the University, students are usually able to purchase books at the Book Center conveniently located in the Student Union at the center of campus or at the Maryland Book Exchange prominently located among the businesses surrounding the college. Yet another establishment from which books can be procured is Vertigo Books.

Unlike the Book Center or Exchange, Vertigo is a small independent store. Thus, since it is metaphorically thumbing its nose at big business, according to the February 7, 2005 edition of the Diamondback, a number of liberal arts professors favor it over the competition by manipulating the book selection process so that the texts for their specific classes are only available at Vertigo.

Such a decision is more about the egos of the professors and stroking them than about the needs of the students. For even though the professors get that intangible buzz that usually accompanies giving the system the finger, this does little for the student and actually imposes a bit of a burden on students since Vertigo does not buy back books and the larger stores are able to sell at a lower price.

If students are going to get stuck with a book they’ll never use again at the end of the semester, they might as well take a gamble and try to find the book in the library and end up paying a fine if the semester lasts longer than their renewal privileges or try to find the book on Amazon.com. If buying books is now going to become a competition of values, students might as well actually show their support of those who actually keep the economy moving.

Copyright 2005 by Frederick Meekins