More Students =
MORE MONEY!!
'Paul Ciesielski, [University of Florida] associate professor of geology, developed a book with Faulkner Press that he uses in a large lecture class on dinosaurs that draws about 3,000 students each year.
Ciesielski's class started with an enrollment of just about 40 students a semester, but it grew substantially over time.
He now says he churns out 9,000 student credit hours a year for UF, and the university receives state appropriations based on the number of credit hours students take.
"I'm not saying I didn't know it was to my benefit (that enrollment grew), but it was to everyone's benefit," Ciesielski said.'
Yessiree, more students in a classroom benefits everyone; classes with three thousand students are going to be much better for students than classes with forty; and when the professor gets royalties on each book sold to them, well, it's win-win!
Even this fantastic outcome can be improved upon, however. A professor can own his or her own publishing company!
'Seigfred Fagerberg, a professor in UF's College of Health and Human Performance, has formed his own company to market his materials.
Students who enroll in Fagerberg's health and medical terminology class are instructed to buy an online textbook for $99.95 and, if they want to pursue extra credit, an additional workbook for $29.95 is available, according to his syllabus. Both books are published by Caduceus International Publishing Inc., which Fagerberg owns.
Fagerberg said he's disappointed to be in the "hot seat" amid an increasing investigation into professors' profits, adding that his product represents the very kind of innovation UF ought to be promoting. Fagerberg says his textbook has been adopted at three universities in Florida and he plans to market it nationally.
"(UF) should be encouraging faculty to develop these things to be competitive with other universities that are doing the same thing," he said.'
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