At Jackson State Community College, Ashley Hardy stood in line to sell her books back only to be told that one of her books was worthless.
"They told me, 'he's going to revise it,'" Hardy said, referring to her then-professor of history and the author of the book in question. "It just seems to me like another way to make money. I mean, it's history. How much revising can you do?"
Hardy, now a senior journalism major at The University of Memphis, was in the same situation U of M students may find themselves. At least eight classes on campus are taught by the same professor who wrote the assigned text. In other classes, assigned books are authored by U of M professors but taught by colleagues.
Exact numbers are hard to find because neither individual departments nor The U of M administration keep up with textbooks, which are not applicable toward tenure. The numbers used here were reported by The U of M bookstore as books authored by U of M professors and confirmed by The Daily Helmsman.
Rebecca Anderson, chair of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership, said she sees having professors who write textbooks as more of an asset than anything.
"The students are kind of in awe of professors who write prolifically, and they take a lot of pride in that," she said. "They associate writing textbooks with being a high scholar in a field."
For a professor to use his or her own textbook, they have to go through a screening process, Anderson said. The decision to use or not use the book is made by the entire program, which in the program areas of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership, means that at least seven or eight professors must agree that the book is the most appropriate for the course.
"If it's the leading textbook in the country, then it should fit into our program," Anderson said. She was referring in particular to a textbook by Deborah Lowther, associate professor, and another by Robert Cooter, Jr., professor.
"It all feeds together to enhance our reputation," Anderson said. "I think we're safe when we have decisions made by the whole program."
Lowther co-authored the book, Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom, which is used in both undergraduate and graduate level classes. She has taught both classes, but she is currently teaching neither.
The book is an integration model that focuses on Lowther's research, she said. The program has been adopted by Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky, and the book is used at universities across the United States and has been translated into other languages including Portuguese and Korean.
"For this class, it is too challenging to have too many approaches," Lowther said. "The students need a solid foundation."
The course and book are a systematic guide to using computers as a delivery tool in the classroom, meaning it is a practical approach rather than theoretical.
"It's hard to teach one thing and not have it supported," Lowther said. "It's a practical approach that works. If the feedback was bad, we wouldn't still be using it."
"It would almost be controversial to not use it if you truly believe in what you are doing and you have put the time into it," she said. "As a professor, (writing a textbook) requires your best thinking."
Professors who have not written a textbook seem to agree that it is more beneficial than not to use your own textbook.
Robert McDowell, associate communications professor, said that for a book to have been written from a professor's years of experience can only be a good thing.
"The negative side is that if the book is not that strong or well-reviewed, it's not fair to force that on students," he said.
In the philosophy department, Professor Leonard R. Lawlor said although each situation must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, "my instincts are that it's a good thing. If a teacher's worth anything, they are going to expand on that in the text."
Steven M. Ross, professor of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research, wrote a book, Introductory Statistics, which has been used for years at The U of M.
Ross decided to write the book when he realized that the department needed a better teaching tool for a self-paced undergraduate course that, he said, became successful because of the book.
"In a stats course, it's really helpful to have a consistent approach," Ross said. "One year we decided not to use the book for some reason. Nearly everyone bought my book and didn't read the other book, so we eventually gave up and went with my book."
Most students do not appreciate it when a book covering a subject like statistics uses notations different from those the professor uses in lecture, Ross said.
In history, however, Rik Tiawama, sophomore journalism major, said he does not see an advantage to having a professor who "wrote the book." He said his professor does not even require reading the book, posting all of the assignments on UM Drive instead.
"I bought three books and only use, like, 50 pages out of them," he said. "I feel like, since we don't use it, he was just getting money off of it."
Although writing and assigning textbooks that are then revised and updated every few years might seem like a racket to students, the royalties received from one class are minimal, said both professors and a textbook publisher spokesman.
"The royalties on a text for one particular class are so minimum, it's insignificant," Anderson said.
At textbook publisher Pearson Education, spokesman David Hakensen said while textbooks are revised on an average of every three to five years, in most cases, the revisions are necessary.
"In science and medical fields, books relate to things that are changing and professors ask us to update because they want the books to keep up with the newest findings," Hakensen said. In less frequently changing fields, like math, he said, books are often updated because the end of chapter tests and exam supplements get passed around among students until they are no longer accurate assessments of knowledge.
In a biology book, for instance, authors and fact-checkers might spend more than 8,000 hours reviewing tables, updating facts and changing photographs, charts and other artwork, Hakensen said.
Lowther said she and her co-authors spend many hours updating their book.
"With technology, I think there's probably a greater need for new editions," she said. For her book, two years passed between writing and publication.
"You wouldn't want to take a technology course and not have the latest and greatest talked about in the book," she said.
