Great article in July 2005 edition of Reader's Digest "That's Outrageous" column (by Michael Crowley). Sorry, no clip of this one, please visit a library or obtain a copy of your own.
Subject of the article "Payola Profs". Pay 'em the right price, they'll say just about anything you want.
It's a age old problem, but one that RD and others have been exposing more and more lately. Just as there were "issues" with the Bush Administration providing payment to media spokespersons like Armstrong Williams and others, there are many similar issues in the world of Academia -- from money sources on the left as well as the right.
College and University personnel are lending their names to all sorts of issues, all because somehow they've enriched their own lives, normally in the form of financial compensation.
That practice, in and of itself, is bad enough, but late in the article in the print edition of RD, there's also several paragraphs that remind me of my time in the world of Academia (on the paying and studying end) where I was left wondering why I was paying $40 - $100 for a book that had been written by an instructor at the College, which wasn't available used, and had just been rewritten. Not available from other vendors, and back in the days before eBay and Amazon (though in such short supply as to not really have been something I could have obtained through such sources anyway).
Why was I stuck paying for such materials? Because the prof needed money to make car payments, or house payments! Those royalty checks from writing that book were important to those folks. Never mind my tuition money, student fees, lab fees, and other fees that helped to pay their salaries. Never mind that they had State or County jobs which made them civil servants with excellent benefits. Not enough, so find more money wherever possible.
In anycase, I encourage everyone to snag a copy of the original article. It's a great piece, and well worth the read.
And for folks attending schools of higher learning - ask those teachers why they choose the materials they require you to use. If they're honest they may even say so they could make more money.
