Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OREM, Utah (AP) -- One Utah Valley State College professor says the rising costs of textbooks is immoral.
Sociology professor Ron Hammond is staging what he calls a one-man protest of textbooks.
According to the government accountability office, textbook prices have risen at double the rate of inflation for the last two decades. That's slightly behind tuition increases.
The average first-time, full-time student at a public four-year school spent nearly $900 on books and supplies in 2004.
Hammond was teaching a class on race relations last year and assigned a text book that cost $80. By the time the course ended the publisher came out with a new edition and the students couldn't sell the book back.
That caused Hammond to decide to ban the books. Now, instead of assigning his students textbooks, he assigns reading material from journal articles and original research available on the Internet or in the library.
Information from: The Daily Herald
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
