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The Rice Thresher
Phone:
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by OLIVIA ALLISON THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
The next meeting will be held March 28 or 29, Wilson said. President Malcolm Gillis sent Wilson a letter Feb. 5 asking the council to address this issue after hearing about conflicts on other campuses about such sites. "I was prompted by observing that it is a problem on many other campuses, and when it came time for us to have to address the issue, I wanted us to be prepared," Gillis said. A man dressed as a gorilla and a man in a purple velvet suit distributed flyers about Versity to students in the academic quad during lunch Wednesday. Campus Police Chief Bill Taylor said he was unaware of Versity representatives on campus but that soliciting students in this way is prohibited by the university's policies. "This is just like the magazine solicitors who come to the campus," Taylor said. "It is not allowed without permission from the administration, and had we seen them, we would have identified the individuals and asked them to leave." Versity began seeking note-takers at the beginning of the semester through an on-campus marketing campaign that included flyers and stickers in the residential colleges and other buildings. Note-takers for Versity are paid $7 per lecture to submit notes from their classes and receive a $40 bonus at the end of the semester if they post notes for every lecture. Art and Art History Professor Joseph Manca was not aware that notes from his HART 206 lectures were being posted online, but after he saw them, he said they were "rudimentary" and contained "scattered inaccuracies." "These notes are not in depth and anyone could read the text and get 50 times more information," Manca said. "I'm not sure how useful this is. What would a student do with it? "If you use it because you're not coming to class, you're getting a poor education, and if you were coming, why would you use this? There is only a small percentage of what was said and it is not always accurate," Manca said. Wilson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, said he would feel uncomfortable if his notes were posted without his permission. "I'd rather they weren't doing this," Wilson said. "I'd feel very uncomfortable if someone was putting my lecture notes on the Web without my control." Economics Professor Kevin Hasker was upset when he found out that notes for his ECON 370 course were online and said he was in favor of university action banning students from selling their notes. "I am upset that it allows them to skip lectures without cost," Hasker said. "It seems rather dishonest - they're posting notes as I give them. I am disturbed at the idea that a student can [gain monetary] benefit from a lecture." Other professors said they do not object to course notes on Versity. Computer Science Department Professor John Greiner said that although he did not know that notes from his course, COMP 210, were posted on the Web site, he doesn't mind because he puts his lecture notes on the course Web site. Greiner said he does not think it is a big issue with the faculty, but he also believes that the university should look into copyright and intellectual property issues. "I think most faculty don't care at this point," Greiner said. Janet Cardinell, Versity.com's director of University Relations, said Versity has contacted almost a thousand professors before their notes were put on the web. "We will be contacting even more with the start of the spring term at the end of March at our quarter schools," Cardinell said. "We want to make certain that we have a program that properly captures professors' input." Will Rice College freshman Leonard Chow said he does not believe many Rice students use Versity. "I don't think many students use it around Rice because I think, at least I hope, the primary purpose of people coming to Rice is to learn," Chow said. A Rice student note-taker who asked to remain anonymous said that note-takers were told that what they were doing was legal and that they didn't have to talk to people about it. Desmond Webster, a Brown College senior and Versity's campus operations manager, could not be reached for comment. - back -
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