Gripping their freshly printed booklists, returning and first-year students frantically run through the shelves of the Cornell Store each semester. Anxious and ready to tackle a new set of classes, students flood tiny red shopping carts with books and study materials. After glancing at the yellow tab of class readings, many are surprised to find that the professors teaching their classes and the authors of the required books share the same name.

All professors who write books make royalties from the books they sell to their students. It is what they do with these royalties that has sparked debate in academic circles: Is it unethical for professors to keep the money earned from the books they assign to their own students?

Many universities across the country have different policies regarding the money their professors make from royalties. The University of Pittsburgh recently enacted a policy prohibiting professors from collecting royalties from books sold to Pitt students. The school claims that students will see a reduction in high book prices because publishers will deduct the royalty from the price of the book.

Across the country at the University of Southern California, one professor allows his students to vote on which NGO will receive the money from royalties on his writings.

The largest undergraduate class taught on the Cornell campus is Psychology 1101. Everyone knows someone who rushes out of Bailey Hall at 11 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday after the lecture. Prof. James Maas Ph.D. ’66, psychology, an expert on sleep studies, teaches the class to over 1,200 students.

When asked how Prof. Maas distributes the royalties earned from his books, he explained that the few cents per copy he gets from the sale of the new copies of his paperback are channeled directly into purchasing or producing audio/visual materials for his introductory class.

“I would never assign anything for which I kept any royalty,” Maas said.

This is just one example of a professor who donates his earnings back to the Cornell community.

Profs. Theodore Lowi and Isaac Kramnick, government, are prolific writers in their field, and, like Prof. Maas, both donate the royalties back to Cornell.

Kramnick places the money that he makes from his students into a Cornell scholarship fund.

“While I believe it is a personal decision, it is, in my eyes, professionally unethical for professors to require students to purchase their books and then proceed to keep the royalties,” he said.

When asked whether a campus-wide policy on professors’ royalties should be enacted, Kramnick replied by saying that such a policy would “jeopardize Cornell’s tradition of faculty freedom.” Each professor has the right to choose how the money is spent.

Lowi explained that professors receive the most money from the initial semester that their book is used. Once the book has been in print for one semester, the availability of second hand copies lowers the worth of the new book.

Because each professor makes minimal royalties when all is said and done, Lowi explained that if professors work together to share some of their small profits, the profits would eventually add up.

“I believe it would be beneficial for 25 or 30 professors to voluntarily create a consolidated scholarship where they could donate small sums earned from book sales back to the Cornell community,” he said.

Unlike these professors, there are some faculty members who believe that they have worked hard to write their books and deserve to keep the royalties. Many professors author books because there is no book directed to their individual teaching methods.

One graduate professor suggested that he spent over 4,000 hours writing his textbook, only to collect $6,000 over the course of several years. When calculated, he estimated he earned about $1.50 per hour spent writing. For him, publishing the textbook was never a way of earning money from his own students.

Prof. Thomas Duncan, chemical engineering, co-authored Introduction to Chemical Engineering Design and Analysis 10 years ago. His textbook is unique in that it is the only textbook that exposes freshman chemical engineering students to open-ended chemical design questions. In the 10 years since the book’s release, Duncan has collected approximately $1,000 per year. For him, the money was unimportant.

Duncan believes that by writing for the Cambridge University Press, his unique ideas could be spread around the world. Professors in five continents use his textbook and design approach to teaching introductory chemical engineering. One lecturer from South Africa even e-mailed Duncan to tell him that his website was down for the night.

In his eyes, writing a textbook was “a labor of love.” He worked hard through unpaid summers to write his textbook and only profits enough each year to buy “new tires for the Ithaca winters.” He explained that he would love to see another professor write a textbook that was more effective than his own and expand upon his approach to introductory chemical engineering.

Prof. John Cawley, policy analysis and management, conveyed his idea that “writing textbooks is much more about gaining visibility amongst peers and helping students than making large sums of money.”

While it is clear that professors can reasonably disagree on this issue, students, who are actually paying the high costs of books, have varying opinions as well. Tommy Felix ’10 believes that providing education should not mean making money. He explained, “If a professor assigns a book for a class, he should give the royalties back to the university or a charity. If they keep the money, it is just a reflection that the book is doing poorly elsewhere, and it is unfair to be profiting directly off of students.”

Sam Friedland ’10 agrees. “Unless it is the authoritative text on the subject, it is ridiculous for a professor to keep the money. Even if it is the best book out there, the professor has no right to keep his or her students’ money. It’s immoral.”

Joshua Neifeld ’11 transferred to Cornell this year and was faced with paying over $100 for an ILR statistics book written by his professor.

“There is a perceived notion that professors here at Cornell are paid well. To require students to buy your textbook each year raises prices and only offers one perspective on a subject. I would hate to think that my learning is offering a professor profit.”

Andrew Bernstein ’11 offered another perspective. “Professors work hard to publish books that are up to date and the best in their field. They deserve to profit from their research and dedication.”

The Cornell campus is overflowing with experts and highly talented researchers who have published works in their fields. With continuing student-professor discussion, professors who felt it was important to contribute might collaborate and help students in need.

The talented faculty at Cornell will no doubt continue to write texts, and subsequently assign those texts to their students. While there may be no forthcoming “solution,” it is certainly going to continue to be a reality in the immediate future.