Every semester, I inevitably end up wandering between the shelves of the Cornell Store, filling my Big Red basket with textbooks (half of which I will likely return three days later after dropping the class). And every semester, I cringe as the friendly store employee announces my upper-three-digits total. The current semester was no exception: $150 plus on Bengali texts, another $400 or so on some silly classes I need to graduate and $80 on an anthology for a government class.

Looking at said anthology, I was both pleased and displeased to notice that my instructor for the class was also the editor of the absurdly heavy, absurdly expensive text. While it was nice to know that my professor was knowledgeable enough to edit a book about the size and weight of the Bible (or several bricks), I was also slightly alarmed that he may be profiting off of my book purchase.

Luckily, that professor was Isaac Kramnick, who was quick to explain in the very first lecture that he donated the royalties he earned off of the sale of his textbook back to the university.

However, not all students feel the same way I do about the topic, and not all professors agree with Kramnick. This week, Eclipse investigates the issue, finding out how much professors make off of books, what they do with the money and how people feel about the matter.

Let us know how you feel about it at eclipse@cornellsun.com, and enjoy the weekend!

Cheers,

Leigha Kemmett