Course fees shouldn't be factor in deciding grades

Editor,

Psychology 105 is attended by 2,200 students in nine sections each semester, according to the UNM Public Affairs Department. Along with this course comes an unusual fee of $60, tacked on for the use of WebCT.

WebCT is supposed to be a free online program. It was brought to UNM to defer costs of alternative online homework Web sites. In addition to the fee to use WebCT, students must cover the cost of an i-Clicker, a handheld electronic device used to track attendance and evaluate participation.

With 2,200 students attending this class and paying these fees each semester, $209,000 of students' hard-earned money goes somewhere, but where?

After the first lecture, I asked a professor from the psychology department during office hours why students are asked to pay for the use of WebCT. He told me that he doesn't write any of his own quizzes and therefore must purchase this copyrighted material from a publisher.

He pointed out that paying the fees was optional, and we could schedule quizzes with a teaching assistant outside of class. On the issue of the i-Clicker, however, we could substitute an automatic 12 percent reduction in our final grades in exchange for not purchasing the $35 device. He then told me he couldn't comment on where our course fees go because he simply didn't know.

The professor purchases his quizzes from Worth Publishers, a subsidiary of McMillan. Worth Publishers is also the wholesaler for the i-Clicker device and the publisher of the textbook for the course.

In 2001, the Pew Charitable Trusts granted $200,000 over two years to implement the use of this technology in the classroom. The grant proposal outlined reducing costs outside of course fees per student from $72 per semester to $29. I don't know whether the Pew Charitable Trusts' requirements for the grant were met. But the spirit in which the grant proposal was written seems to be gone, since it now costs students upward of $95 - in addition to course fees and textbooks - to be competitive in this course.

Every student enrolled in this class is effectively one of the professor's research subjects. He has made his career researching student behavior.

What hypothesis, I wonder, does the professor propose to test by tying grades directly to students' ability to pay for the i-Clicker and making students have to choose between rearranging their schedules on the one hand or paying for a "free" WebCT service on the other?

The Board of Regents has strict guidelines regarding the treatment of research subjects. Of top priority, no research should hurt the participants involved. Does this code of ethics include financial pain? The community should be concerned when our professors educate us differently according to our ability to pay.

Perhaps I can find the print shop that prints UNM's diplomas - at McMillan maybe - and print one directly. But I'd rather get an education.

Sam Irons

UNM student