Bookstore Woes, from Wombat of the Copier

I need advice.

Before COVID we had nearly 1000 students in our service courses, so we use an online homework package.  It's pricey but it comes with textbook access.  I felt that for what the students pay for it, we shouldn't just thoughtlessly throw some random problems at them - but we should make the absolute best use of it.  I devoted an entire winter break a few years ago to testing all of the bells and whistles and coming up with a new course design that, for the same price they were already paying for run of the mill problem sets, could be used to give them a great, interactive, experience where things done in one part of the course (lecture, lab, peer workshop...) would work synergistically with other parts.  I made self-assessments that students could use with flow-charts to help them figure out if they've nailed a topic, or need more practice, and if so, what part of the program should they try next etc.  I even watched upwards of 50 hours of supplementary videos and played with supplementary animations/simulations/manipulatives etc. to provide students with descriptions and time stamps of what each of these features were.  If we're going to tell them we'd like them to buy a $100 access code - I wanted to make sure they got $200 worth of education out of it.

But our bookstore manager is the worst.  Every fall until Nov and every spring until April, I have students getting the run around about "back ordered" course codes.  A few years ago me and a few colleagues put the publisher link in our course outline and bookstore manager sent us aggressive cease and desist orders claiming we have a contract and that we're violating it.  HE violates it by not providing the students with course materials.  He claimed it was a communication issue and my department fails to tell him to order an adequate number of codes.  Every year we increase the request by 10% of what we asked for the last semester - and since covid our enrollment is actually down (like everywhere else) and he STILL runs out of codes before the first week.  I wouldn't mind but there's more.  He still lets the bookstore take orders - he continues to take money from the students and tells them they'll get a call when the codes come in.

But he never calls them.

We have 2 reps from the publisher and they tell me this is all bullshit in the first place.  There is no such thing as being "backordered".  There isn't some ship in the middle of the Suez holding all the cards.  If the bookstore manager calls and requests more codes, they hit a button, a computer generates a few dozen more codes, and they send them instantly.  

They've even told me "stay by your e-mail - we're sending codes to your bookstore right now and we'll let you know when your students can get them on campus" and STILL when the students show up he claims they're "backordered".

So I've pleaded multiple times with my chair to take this to the University and every semester he says ok next semester.

I wouldn't mind that he can't provide the codes if he didn't threaten me - but now I'm afraid - I try to be covert about it but it gives me massive anxiety.

If this is how he runs the bookstore can I really be sued, as he claimed?  I can't get my chair to talk to the university about what is actually in that contract - I'm SURE the bookstore voids the exclusivity by not being able to provide the course materials.

What would you do?  Any advice?  

I mean in what universe do students actually work this hard to get their materials?  They usually blow it off - and I've managed to convince them that they should try to use the recommended course materials.  I'm actually pretty proud of what I've done with this course - and this guy is just screwing the students and lashing out at the faculty.  I am just very frustrated and hoped someone might have a good idea.  

--Wombat of the Copier

Prof. Pottah sends a letter of contemplation and hope.

Hey There, 

So over four years ago--wow, that long?--I posted this: https://zoozethehorse.blogspot.com/2017/05/adjunct-debt-from-prof-pottah.html

I was down. I was . . . not well. I had just finished another semester at two local colleges. The jobs, like many adjunct jobs, were often humiliating (we know why; no need to rehash that). The school I taught most of my classes at let me go a semester later. It was bleak--financially and spiritually. It was bleak. I had made mistakes and was paying for them, but I was pretty much condemned to this life forever. 

I kept the messages (on the website and one the moderator sent me) with me. I kept them in my wallet. I took them out this year on Christmas morning after receiving a new wallet from my kids. I had forgotten about them, but they helped me hold out some hope and stop judging myself by academia's
terms,  and eventually I found an open door (that phrase is inspired by one of the comments) in another field.  It was just a crack at first, but then it grew into something larger (and it almost grew into something really amazing recently, but I didn't get the job, which is fine). I'm not making much money, but with this job and a little adjuncting, I am at least making about $40,000. And I get four months off from the main job! (It's permanent but seasonal.) 

But what I am really earning is pride and a sense of mattering. My teaching experience directly impacts my job now, and I am able to mentor younger people and bring all of my creativity to the work. I am really good at the job. Teaching as an adjunct, of course, mattered, but any positive feelings were usually destroyed by the daily humiliations and frustrations. But that's a thing of the past.

I feel real again. I don't have to lie to my kids. Adjuncting is much better now because I don't walk on to campus full of shame, the community college at which I teach values me.  I feel like an actual person, not something that exists on the backside of a university and can be wiped away at will without the outside world ever witnessing it, or wanting to.

No one else knew about this struggle, save my wife. (And I don't even think she understood the feelings of powerlessness.) Who else was I going to tell? Thank you. I was glad you all listened. Who else would have? Again, thank you.

--Prof. Pottah

[Editor's note:  Thank you to the writer for sending a follow-up message a few days later--because the first one actually went to my spam folder.  Who knows how long it could have languished there had I not been poked?]

White professor teaching 'Black Lives Matter' course for $140k/year [Rebel News]

 

Some faculty have all the luck.

". . . cardboard box. . . full of $50 and $100 bills bundled in paper bands, totaling $180,000."

"A portion of his salary was deposited in a Chinese bank account and the remainder — an amount he estimated as between $50,000 and $100,000 — was paid in $100 bills, which he carried home in his luggage."

Journal retracts 122 papers at once [Retraction Watch]

 The flava:

A SAGE journal has retracted 122 papers because of “clear indicators that the submission and/or peer review process for these papers was manipulated.”

The article:

https://retractionwatch.com/2021/12/15/journal-retracts-122-papers-at-once/

A professor told me [youtube]

 

Reese's Just Launched a University for Peanut Butter Cup Fans [Food & Wine]

The flava:

For peanut butter-based candy, the Reese's name reigns supreme thanks in no small part to their enormously popular peanut butter cups. Now, the Hershey-owned brand wants to bring that expertise to the masses (kind of) with the launch of their new eponymous Reese's University.

Admittedly, Reese's repeatedly cites their own lawyers as saying "Reese's University is not a real University," but the concept remains the same: a fictional institution of higher education, albeit one with a real nickname, the Fighting Cuppies, and a real mascot with a giant peanut butter cup head. The school also boasts an insanely high 99.99-percent acceptance rate.

The article:

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/reeses-university

#UATX ?

"I left my post as president of St. John’s College in Annapolis to build a university in Austin dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth."

--Pano Kanelos

https://www.uaustin.org

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/we-cant-wait-for-universities-to 

University of Florida bans professors from giving expert testimony against state [yahoo! news]

 The flava:

The University of Florida barred three of its professors from serving as paid experts in a Florida voting rights case - sparking outrage within academia and in the news media. The university said allowing its professors to testify against the state was at odds with its interests. Critics say the move puts politics ahead of academic freedom. Here, George Justice, an English professor and former college dean, offers insight into the dynamics at play in the controversy. . . .

The article:

https://news.yahoo.com/university-florida-bans-professors-giving-122531055.html

End Racial Preferences at Colleges? [John Stossel]