Editorial: Post syllabi early, not just books

A popular way to save money in college is to avoid purchasing bank account-draining textbooks at… A popular way to save money in college is to avoid purchasing bank account-draining textbooks at all costs. This is especially good advice if you don’t plan on using your textbooks anyway. Isn’t that what Wikipedia is for?

Unfortunately, a Wiki-based education probably won’t get you a Pitt degree.

But lucky for us, a new law just took effect that hopes to help students save on the hefty cost of textbooks.

An add-on to the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 will require textbook publishers to inform professors of the prices of their textbooks. This will allow professors, or at least the nice ones, to choose less expensive materials for their classes.

In addition, universities will have to provide students with a price list of required textbooks at the time they enroll for classes. This is meant to give students more time to shop around for lower prices. Or, if you’re like some, it will allow you to quickly drop classes that require more than three texts.

We appreciate Congress finally blowing the whistle on textbook companies wiping out students’ wallets. But the road toward greater student freedom doesn’t end here – it’s only one step.

The next step is clear. We shouldn’t just have the book list finalized before enrollment. We should also get our syllabus before we register for classes.

Many times, students do not see a syllabus before the first day of class. And often, students know as soon as they see a syllabus that they don’t want to be in a class.

By seeing a syllabus well before the first week of a semester, students would command more control over their final schedules.

Because many students have to factor in other time commitments, such as work, internships and extracurricular activities, it’s nice to have a good idea of what their final class schedule will look like ahead of time. And students may often feel trapped in a class because they have already scheduled other time commitments around their courses. While having a syllabus wouldn’t eliminate the possibility of not liking a class, it definitely would provide a better understanding of the class than just a simple course description.

With syllabi available early, students would know exactly when textbooks are needed, allowing them to purchase books throughout the course of the semester.

Ultimately, we pay a lot for our credits and therefore should benefit from and maybe, just maybe, enjoy them. Wielding a syllabus come enrollment time would be a small way for Pitt to ensure that happens.