Bad practice

It is a professor’s job to help students.

Whether it would be extending the tools for an education to students or giving life guidance, professors are there to help.

Helping students save money is no exception. Professors have failed to do this by missing the deadline for textbook lists.

And while certainly there are other factors involved in the prices of textbooks, getting the list of books professors plan to use would allow the CMU Bookstore and Student Book Exchange more time to find the best deals on books and pass the lowest prices on to students.

That might be assuming a lot about the business practices of college bookstores, but if there is something professors can do to help students keep the costs of college down, they should do so.

Meeting this deadline should be easy – especially when students are expected to keep similar registration deadlines each semester.

The deadline to submit textbook lists to the stores was Oct. 19, but several departments still haven’t given the books they need. And when they finally do submit their lists, it’ll mean the bookstores will be at a disadvantage; they’ll need to take what they can get, because schools that had their lists earlier will have picked over what’s available.

That means higher prices for students already strapped by hiked tuition prices each year.

There’s no reason professors shouldn’t be expected to figure out what books they need by October. Students are expected to register for spring classes halfway through a semester, and if they don’t, they don’t get to take classes.

If the university doesn’t have a problem placing deadlines on students, the administration, at the very least, should put the same pressures on professors.

Not to mention that CMU, which is battling a reputation of hiking tuition and costing more than comparable universities in this state, should be doing anything it can to help students keep costs down.

CMU administrators should enforce the deadlines on professors and departments. It’s not too much to ask that professors get their textbook lists done in a timely manner.

There’s no excuse for administrators not to crack down on faculty and correct this problem. It may not save the “hundreds of thousands” of dollars, as CMU Bookstore manager Barry Waters claims, but it would at least show students that CMU cares about their finances enough to enforce a simple deadline on its employees.

And this university should do anything it can to make itself more affordable, before tuition hikes and rising room and board threaten to start sending students elsewhere.

There’s no reason to pile more costs on students, especially when those costs are avoidable.

Faculty can be expected to meet deadlines just like students are every day.