Bill,

Thank you for clearly stating what to me has been a bothersome issue.
The university bookstore exists to serve the academic interests of
the faculty and its students and not the other way around.  I am
hopeful that your good sense will prevail and that as faculty we will
have time to reflect over the selection of textbooks that will best
serve the needs of our students.

Again thanks,

Charles Nelson

At 10:14 PM -0400 4/20/04, William P Harman wrote:
>X-Auth-No:
>X-Sender: bharman
>Date:         Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:14:46 -0400
>Reply-To:     William P Harman <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender:       UTC Staff E-Mail List <[log in to unmask]>
>From:         William P Harman <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      [UTCSTAFF]
>To:           [log in to unmask]
>
>Dear Alicia Hennessey,
>
>After your several notes and urgings about getting book orders in, I
>find I must respond. And I must say how much I regret what you are
>doing. You claim to be looking out for the financial interests of
>the students, but please admit that the bookstore will take a
>significant cut in the sales. The hype is getting annoying: you send
>us several e-mails urging us to get our orders in long before the
>July date when you will actually send orders to publishers. And long
>before faculty have had the chance to evaluate the texts they have
>used and make decisions during the months of May and June about
>whether these texts should be used again in their courses. Many of
>us need this time, but you have created remarkable pressures not to
>think or reflect carefully: you offer catered treats to departments
>with "on time" book orders; offer gifts to secretarties of
>departments who comply in order to get the secretaries to hassle and
>harangue faculty. You publish the names of departments who have
>complied. And it has reached the point where certain department
>heads, for reasons I cannot fathom, are imposing sanctions on
>faculty if their book orders are not submitted by your deadline.
>
>Students have the right to sell their books, but I feel they should
>not be unduly tempted. I believe they should keep their college
>books, and that as years pass they will find them a real resource as
>they incorporate what they have learned here into the rest of their
>lives. I still have and value many of my old college texts.
>
>You have every right to exert pressure and to bribe people over this
>issue, I realize. But what is permissible and what is conducive to a
>campus concerned with scholarly and academic questions is quite
>something else. We deserve better from a university bookstore.
>
>Bill Harman
>
>
>
>
>
>
>William Harman, Head
>Department of Philosophy and Religion (# 2753)
>The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>232 E Holt Hall // 615 McCallie Avenue
>Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403
>(423) 425-4336  // fax (423)425-4153
>
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>         If you have the following address for me, please remove it.
>It no longer functions: [log in to unmask]

--


Charles H. Nelson
Professor and Head
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
Dept. #2653
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
Ph. 423-425-4341
Fax 423-425-2285