Bill,
My sentiments exactly!  Thank you.  I had emailed Alicia earlier to explain
that I needed time to think about my fall courses and simply couldn't do
that until the current semester is over.  Alicia was gracious in her
response, but along came those continuous emails exerting pressure in a
number of ways.  I began to think I might be, if not the lone offender,
then one of a few lazy, recalcitrant faculty!
Thanks for addressing the issue:-)
Eileen Meagher





At 10:14 PM 4/20/04 -0400, William P Harman wrote:
>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]

Eileen M. Meagher Ph.D
Professor of English
Coordinator of MA track in rhetoric/writing
English Department
Holt Hall 229C
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN 37403
[log in to unmask]
423-425-4693
FAX: 423-425-2282