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2007 Winners - Solutions-oriented writing (3rd place)
Why are course packs so expensive?
The Daily goes on a hunt to find out how a bundle of photocopies can cost $80
By Max Halparin
McGill Daily (McGill University)
Buying course packs can induce a sigh of relief from students eager to avoid astronomical textbook prices, but this year some students and professors were shocked to see course pack prices take a leap toward their hard cover counterparts.
After students in Urban Social Geography (GEOG 331) paid a hefty $72.36 before tax for this year’s collection of readings, Professor Brenda Lee apologized for the high price during a class discussion.
“One finds out [the price] after the fact,” she said, adding, “And then you turn it over and say, Oh, say it isn’t so.’”
U2 Geography student Tyler Kreider was frustrated with the course pack’s price tag, saying it was just as expensive as a textbook.
“It seems like they’re just trying to make money off students,” he said.
However, course pack production is not such a cut-and-dry issue; there are many players involved and less profit going around than one might expect.
Making cents of it all
McGill Copyright and Course Pack Services covers all aspects of production, from printing to distribution through the McGill Bookstore. It contracts out the initial steps contact with professors, generation of the master file, and clearing the copyrights to Eastman Systems Inc. From August 1 to mid-September, two 30-foot long printers run 24/7 to keep up with demand.
“My operation makes no money, which is the way it should be,” said Course Pack Services Coordinator James Warne.
There are two main costs that contribute to a course pack’s price. One is a base price of 10 cents per page; the second is a royalty charge added to selections that exceed reproduction limits, such as using more than 10 per cent of any work or more than one chapter of a book.
Warne explained that when McGill assumed control of course pack production in 2004, the base cost per page actually dropped from 11 to nine cents, before it increased to 10 cents this year to cover rising paper and production costs.
Professor Lee added 120 pages of reference material to this year’s GEOG 331 course pack which spans 622 pages intending to provide students with hard-to-find articles related to the course. Lee said that if she had known about the price increase, she would not have included the reference articles.
“I will never do this again; there’s not much satisfaction to students,” she said.
The extra royalty costs for GEOG 331 added up to $8.32 compared to just $3.12 last year although no single selection accounted for more than $1.44 in extra charges.
Authors are people too
COPIBEC, a not-for-profit collective of authors and publishers that collects and distributes royalties in Quebec, collects both the aforementioned royalty charge and the Copyright Fee, which is flat fee of $20.50 per full-time student per year. The fee will increase to $22.00 next school year.
When asked why the Copyright Fee continues to increase steadily from $8 for 2001-2002 to $25.50 for 2011-2012 COPIBEC Executive Director Hlne Messier explained the fee is tied to the “sheer volume” of pages reproduced.
In an email written to The Daily, Messier explained that in the last four years, the amount of reproduced pages in Quebec has increased by 33 per cent. The Copyright Fee, she said, has increased by the same percentage.
The additional copyright royalty adds an extra eight cents per page, although this fee is increasing as well. In 2001 it was six cents per page, but will be nine cents in 2009-2010. Messier noted that the reproduction limits exist to protect the authors’ original work.
“We don’t encourage reproducing above the limits,” said Messier. “The costs should be high enough to have a deterrent effect.”
In 2005-2006 COPIBEC collected nearly $11-million and distributed just $8.2-million to rights holders. Messier explained that after a 13 per cent administrative fee is deducted from costs, COPIBEC accumulates left over money intended for authors who are hard to track down.
In the following school year, COPIBEC collected $11.7-million and distributed $10.8-million, which after deduction of the administrative fee left $10.2-million. This means that COPIBEC distributed $600,000 to authors who were hard to locate in previous years.
Messier maintained that with more employees and a larger database of authors’ works, COPIBEC is becoming more efficient at distributing royalties.
All that for a photocopy?
Craig Park, CEO of Eastman Systems Inc., started producing course packs at McGill in 1991 with friend and Eastman Director & Vice President Hagen Menhert.
After receiving permission from their professors and the Dean of Arts, then-political science undergrads Park and Menhert gathered course readings, cleared copyrights, and sold the first McGill course packs in the Leacock building.
For someone involved with a student-run enterprise that is now a part of a bigger business, Park had mixed feelings towards the copyright system and course pack production.
“Overall, this is still a pretty ridiculous price for a bunch of photocopies,” he said.
