Professors, what books do students actually need?

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

When my roommate and I aren’t out being venture capitalists trying to give back to the community, we like to light up a couple stogies, stand around in my bathroom and flush $5 bills down the toilet until the fire alarm in our apartment building goes off.

This is a basic parallel to the common practice of professors not informing their students which required texts are not necessarily “required” for their course.

nutgraf

I felt a sense of loss for the good time my roommate and I could’ve had flushing $80 worth of Lincolns.

It’s an easily solved problem to an all-too-regular situation. Yet no professor I’ve encountered feels it necessary to forewarn his or her students about the possibility of wasting of money.

How could I keep the fire alarms from going off in my apartment building?

Easy. Dismantle them.

How could professors keep us from wasting money?

By using Blackboard. It exists for a reason.

Saving money is one of my top priorities, as it is to most of my classmates, so I make sure to buy my books in advance. Many students, like myself, don’t use the bookstore on campus for all of their required text needs. I use half.com and amazon.com along with the marketplace application on Facebook.

I arrived at my sociology course on the first day only to find out an $80 book that the bookstore told me I needed was not in fact needed.

I felt a sense of loss for the good time my roommate and I could’ve had flushing $80 worth of Lincolns.

I know it was supposed to be a nice gesture on the professor’s part. I’m all about nice gestures. I blow kisses to people instead of flipping them off. I call bad drivers “Cupcake.”

I like nice gestures, gestures that mean something, nice gestures that follow through — nice gestures that cook breakfast the morning after.

If a professor isn’t going to require some of the texts, it would be best if the professor would post a notice on Blackboard. Every student of the class automatically has the chance to see this information far in advance, and it allows them to save money. There isn’t a drawback, other than a professor having to use some of his or her “office hours” (during which hardly any students show up).

Students, demand this of your professors, not necessarily in a threatening or ominous manner since it wouldn’t do any good. Rather, tell them how nice it was for them to cut some of the required texts out, but also tell them how much more it would’ve helped you if they had posted it in advance on Blackboard. You don’t get slapped if you don’t ask.

With my leftover cash from knowing in advance which books to buy, I’ll go out and grab some cookie dough. I may bake some professors cookies — that is, if they can keep me out of this swivet.

Stewart is a Wichita junior in journalism.

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