Textbook case

Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005 | 8:03 a.m.

Students love to complain about the high cost of textbooks, but a handful of students in a line that snaked around a CCSN bookstore recently had a different reason to complain: Some of their texts were written and assigned by the professors themselves.

Nineteen professors at the Community College of Southern Nevada and 35 at UNLV have required students to buy textbooks the professors have written, according to lists compiled by both institutions.

At CCSN, where officials were able to provide more detailed information than UNLV, more than 10,000 students are required to buy textbooks written by those 19 professors because the books are being used in about 360 course sections.

Professors at both schools said they wrote the books, which range from specialty research texts to collections of essays or workbooks, to improve their classes and to meet a perceived need in their fields of expertise. The royalties they receive in exchange for their work doesn't equal minimum wage, more than a dozen professors said.

Some students, however, don't buy that explanation.

Kenna Rimbey, a 19-year-old CCSN sophomore, said if the professor is good, using his or her textbook may improve the class. But if the professor is bad, such as a professor she had last year, students are stuck with that professor's textbook and are paying that professor extra money.

But Rimbey, like many of the students standing impatiently in line, said she was resigned to buying the "Faces in Anthropology" book she needed, written by CCSN anthropology professors Kevin Rafferty and Dorothy Ukaegbu.

"I gotta have it," Rimbey said. "I have no choice."

Farther along in line, 20-year-old Stephanie Wallner was more hopeful about the same book.

"They obviously know what they are talking about," Wallner said.

Sophomore LaTosha Hampton, 23, had a professor who required a government textbook that he had co-written, and the textbook was actually clearer than the professor, she said.

But she was still a little miffed she had to buy the book.

"It's an advantage for him, but a disadvantage for the student putting money in his pocket," Hampton said.

Professors said they are not getting rich off their students, and some, such as Rafferty, said his and Ukaegbu's collection of essays in anthropology gives students greater exposure to different voices on the subject at a cheaper cost.

"It's (writing the textbooks) really more for the love of writing and the love of readership," Rafferty said. "I would say there's a little bit of ego in wanting to see your name in print, but for the most part, you do it because it's what you do. It's who you are."

Rafferty said he receives about $1.50 for every book sold, about 10 percent of the production costs.

Other professors said they received anywhere from 25 cents to $5 a book.

Some professors, such as Terrence M. Clauretie, a business professor at UNLV who wrote a book on real estate finance, donate the royalties they make locally to the institution to avoid a perceived conflict of interest.

But most said they don't make enough for a conflict of interest to be an issue.

"If I divided the number of hours that I've spent on these projects, I would have been better off going out and working a second job at McDonald's," CCSN history professor John Hollitz said of his two books on American history. "And that's not an exaggeration."

Professors at both schools are encouraged to publish in their fields as often as they can, CCSN President Richard Carpenter and UNLV Executive Vice President and Provost Ray Alden said.

And because writing a textbook involves synthesizing all known information on a topic, those professors are often better equipped to teach that subject, both administrators said.

At the university level, it's still better for promotion and tenure purposes for professors to write original material, Alden said.

UNLV's policy is to review texbooks written by professors before allowing them to be used in those professors' classes. The books must be substantive and useful for those courses, Alden said.

CCSN does not have such a policy, but will likely adopt one as part of the faculty handbook in the coming year, Carpenter said.

The advantage of using one's own textbook is that you know the material better and it is organized to the way you teach, several professors said.

"You know the material like the back of your hand by the time you teach your own class because you have gone through every shred of material there is," said Christopher Kearney, a psychology professor at UNLV who wrote a case book in child behavior disorders.

But most professors said they wrote their textbooks because of gaps in the field at the time.

UNLV psychology professor Russell Hurlburt, for example, said he wrote his book "Comprehending Behavioral Statistics" after realizing few of his graduate students had any understanding of statistics at all.

"I wondered if it were possible to write an undergraduate book that they would remember better," said Hurlburt, whose book is now in its fourth edition.

CCSN English professor Richard Logsdon similarly put together his collection of essays called the "Red Rock Reader" to give students better examples of how to do the type of writing he was requiring. His book includes essays from Malcolm X to Henry David Thoreau.

"We are doing this to provide students the best model textbook we can," Logsdon said.

Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at clittle@lasvegassun.com.