Art Institute Instructor Fired For Protesting Mandatory E-Textbook Policy Takes School To Court
from the tossing-aside-great-instructors-in-order-to-cash-in-on-shady-policies dept
A few months back, we covered the story of Mike Tracy, a highly regarded animator with over a decade of teaching experience at the Art Institute of California. Tracy protested his school's mandatory ebook policy, one that saddled students with one-time use ebooks (via access codes) at a cost of $50-75 each. The push behind this policy came from the Education Management Corporation (EDMC), which manages several for-profit universities as well as operating its own e-textbook publishing company, Digital Bookshelf.Mike Tracy refused to enforce the questionable policy and spoke out openly against EDMC's mandatory e-book policy, calling the forced inclusion of these textbooks "arbitrary, inappropriate and completely motivated by profit." In response, the Art Institute fired Tracy for "insubordination." It may be wishing it had simply made a few exceptions or reconsidered its textbook policies, as it is now being sued, along with EDMC, for lost wages and benefits, along with punitive damages for retaliation, wrongful termination and emotional distress.
Tracy, who had taught for 11-1/2 years at the Art Institute without requiring his students purchase a textbook, was informed by administration in 2010 that he would need to select a textbook from the list provided by EDMC, something that had never been required before this point.That's the trouble with policies: they can often override knowledge and/or common sense. Seeing as Tracy had more than 11 years experience at that point (and was respected by his students, who collected more than 4,700 signatures on a petition to get him reinstated), one would think the school would value his opinion over a list compiled by a management corporation more interested in turning students into mandatory "customers" than actually providing quality education. Tracy's concern about this new policy led him to do some research, which uncovered some more mercenary ugliness on EDMC's part.
"Plaintiff was concerned by this notification that his course had been selected for compulsory participation in defendants' e-book program," the complaint states.
"Plaintiff had taught the course for more than a decade without the use of an officially published textbook. Plaintiff had never previously designated a textbook for the course because, in the rapidly and ever-evolving field of digital animation, which increasingly relied on cutting-edge technical developments in the larger field of computers and computer science, no published textbook adequately addressed the subject matter of the course. Available published textbooks often suffered from a lack of comprehensive teaching of the subject matter; a failure to remain relevant, containing out-of-date materials, techniques, or approaches, due to rapid and continuous developments in the field; or a failure to provide practical and/or theoretical educational content that would adequately prepare students for careers in the field. Thus, in plaintiff's professional and academic opinion, none of the available published textbooks for the course were productive, useful, or appropriate for the students."
Tracy says he found that students taking courses requiring an e-book were charged $50 for an "electronic resources fee," and $75 if the course required two e-books.Mandatory fees plus elimination of used books sales. It's a nice racket if you can get in on it. Tracy claims most students were unaware they were being charged these mandatory fees and that other instructors felt the e-textbooks were unsuitable for their classes and never used the "provided" texts which, oddly, worked out perfectly for EDMC and the Art Institute.
"Students were not allowed to opt out of the automatic fee, which was charged to their tuition accounts without further notice," the complaint states.
Tracy claims this policy prevents students from buying their books elsewhere, a right guaranteed in the student handbook.
"Moreover, the policy effectively eliminated all other potential ways that students traditionally saved money on text purchases, such as buying used texts or trading texts after completing a course, because access to the mandatory e-books was limited to the particular student charged, in a single-use only basis."
"More disconcerting still, plaintiff discovered that if the student never logged on and activated the e-book account for the course, defendants retained a higher percentage of the profit from the sale of the e-book under the terms of their contract with the e-book publisher than if the student had actually activated and made use of the e-book account," the complaint states.That's just bizarre. As a digital product, prices shouldn't fluctuate depending on actual "use" of the texts. If this is true, it's as though the intention was to push as many useless and needlessly expensive e-textbooks on students as possible in hopes of a greater "return" of "unused" textbooks. Beyond some minor account maintenance, it's hard to see many expenses being incurred by the use of e-textbooks, which makes the higher profit margin on unused "books" inexplicable.
Tracy filed complaints with several government agencies, including the Department of Education. On August 10, 2010, Tracy was threatened with firing unless he complied with the new policy.
"During the meeting, plaintiff, again, reiterated his concerns about defendants' e-book policy, including explaining his belief that it resulted in falsely or fraudulently utilizing federal and state funds (by way of the government-provided grants and loans to the students) through an unfair pricing scheme for the e-books, from which students were unable to opt out. Plaintiff stated that he believed the letter threatening his termination was a retaliatory attempt by defendants to silence his opposition to the e-book policy and to deter other faculty from coming forward and voicing opposition to the same. Plaintiff also believed the termination threat was a signal to him and his colleagues that defendants would not tolerate any type of questioning of their policies, without regard for whether these policies were in violation of the law and fair and ethical business practices," the complaint states.Tracy suggested alternatives to the new policy but they were rejected. Believing that his firing was imminent, he posted a message on his personal Facebook account regarding the situation, thanking his students and colleagues for the time they spent together during his career. This apparently was too much for the Art Institute to take.
Four days after the meeting, the Art Institute fired him, "mischaracterizing his continued opposition to their e-book policy on the grounds that it was unlawful, unfair, and unethical as 'insubordination,'" Tracy says in the complaint.While we wait for this to play out, there are a couple of issues to keep an eye on. Considering EDMC's past legal issues (it's currently being sued by the Department of Justice for illegal recruiting and false claims) and it's possible violation of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (which states that textbook publishers must unbundle their core educational content from optional add-ons like study guides, homework systems and, possibly, mandatory electronic versions of textbooks), Mike Tracy could end up with a rather swift settlement should EDMC wish to remain out of the judicial limelight.
He claims the school retaliated against him for objecting to its unlawful e-book program, refusing to participate in the program, and reporting the program to the government.
While this lawsuit is not directly about textbook publishing or for-profit schools, it does serve the purpose of shining some sunlight on the intertwined workings of businesses like EDMC, which both owns and supplies textbooks to its colleges. This limitation of options, and the reliance on accounts, passwords and one-time use e-textbooks, prevents students and instructors from choosing anything but the most profitable (for the management and administration) path.
Exposing EDMC's "policies" for what they are -- the building blocks of closed ecosystem -- will hopefully help steer future students away from post-secondary for-profit schools run by the corporation. As for Tracy, hopefully the suit goes his way and, at the very least, he ends up at a school that appreciates his talents.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: ebooks, fired, mandatory, mike tracy, teacher, textbooks
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
Anyhoo, yawn: yet another story of corporatized fraud and economic tyranny.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
I will point out that this blog is tech-based, so has no reason to chase every single instance of capitalistic abuse, whioh would be a bit like complaining about a particular broken straw in a haystack...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
Most of OOTB's posts are pure poison that add no value to the discussion at hand, but this one is on point. Bravo. Maybe this troll can be tamed.
A discussion gets really boring if everyone agrees. It's refreshing to see an opposing point of view that's intelligently formed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
This guy makes sense...at least until the last sentence...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
The government gives corporations all the monopoly powers they need to screw you, and you blame not the government, but "capitalism", and call for more government involvement. Whenever you feel that corporatist truncheon coming down and beating you bloody, you can at least take some pride in the fact that it's because of you and people like you who worked tirelessly to make it happen.
Congratulations.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
PACs need some clear laws around spending to make them useful in getting more people out voting! Negative ads doesn't really do that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
Have you ever actually read the Court's opinion in Citizens United v FEC?
Here are some of the facts of the case, extracted from the opinion, just in case you've never actually read it:
You know, I've heard a lot of crazy characterizations of this case, from people who do not seem very acquainted with the actual facts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
The Citizens United decision was the exact opposite of logical.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
Corporations are people my friend. - Romney
I'll believe it when Texas executes one. - real people
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
And the furor over Citizen's United is precisely the kind of stuff that drives me crazy. People are all in up in arms that the supreme court said that the government can't ban political speech merely because it came from a group of people instead of a single person.
"Please, government! Shut me and my friends up! I beg you! In fact, here's the duct tape!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
The ruling was a bit more complex than what you present.
The ruling has led to many questionable activities, one of which is donations originating from outside US borders which was in the past considered to be illegal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
And multinational corporations have always been making donations to PACS and dark money has always been in existence because these are not new things created as a result of the Citizens United ruling. Very interesting.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Key words: "Corporation" and "for-profit".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If only the EDMC had used a better, less heavy handed policty instead. If they could have given a reason for students and professors alike to use the books, perhaps this could have been avoided. Honestly, though, after dealing with this issue on multiple campuses through advocacy work throughout my state, I think that unless you force professors to use ebooks, we will not see them used mainstream in colleges for at least another decade, if not two.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
The school administrations are all about minimizing risk, and this lawsuit is just another reason for them to say ebooks aren't worth it. The school handled this very poorly, in a very shady manner (as schools often do), and the professor protested in a way that certainly brings attention to the issue, but is still misconduct in terms of a work environment.
The whole situation is rather unfortunate for progress with ebooks, is all I was getting at.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
The fact that the books were ebooks is immaterial, the situation would be the same if they were paper books.
The more significant questions are should administrators be able to restrict the books that can be used, and should the same people be involved in both running colleges and publishing books. The combination is likely to destroy any real value in the resulting education, both in the quality of materials and by driving out competent teachers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Also, I totally agree, eBooks are the future, they should be accessible, colleges should find ways to get them in courses--but only when they're welcome. They should fit the curriculum, be the best sources out there and not cost students more money, especially since they're digital files on the cloud instead of physical books that have to be manufactured and distributed! EDMC's eBooks are unfit, inferior, forced and overpriced. That professors were forced to select a book says enough.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Also, I totally agree, eBooks are the future, they should be accessible, colleges should find ways to get them in courses--but only when they're welcome. They should fit the curriculum, be the best sources out there and not cost students more money, especially since they're digital files on the cloud instead of physical books that have to be manufactured and distributed! EDMC's eBooks are unfit, inferior, forced and overpriced. That professors were forced to select a book says enough.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
That's the problem. The Art Institute did not allow any options. It was mandatory.
You may want to read the article again, but here's the relevant paragraph:
"Plaintiff had taught the course for more than a decade without the use of an officially published textbook. Plaintiff had never previously designated a textbook for the course because, in the rapidly and ever-evolving field of digital animation, which increasingly relied on cutting-edge technical developments in the larger field of computers and computer science, no published textbook adequately addressed the subject matter of the course. Available published textbooks often suffered from a lack of comprehensive teaching of the subject matter; a failure to remain relevant, containing out-of-date materials, techniques, or approaches, due to rapid and continuous developments in the field; or a failure to provide practical and/or theoretical educational content that would adequately prepare students for careers in the field. Thus, in plaintiff's professional and academic opinion, none of the available published textbooks for the course were productive, useful, or appropriate for the students."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If the school's "operation" requires employees to be complicit in illegal activities then interfering is an obligation.
Terminating an employee for asking about the legality of school policy is an indirect admission of guilt with respect to the illegal activity.
I have heard many claims about how private business can run schools more efficiently ... I guess it depends upon what is being measured. In this case, one could claim that the for profit school was very efficient at extracting money from students - much of it through government loans. Possibly this is why they want to eliminate government loans - so that the practice is less illegal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
@Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2012 @ 6:57am
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: @Anonymous Coward, Dec 7th, 2012 @ 6:57am
To increase the amount of the kickbacks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
These art school scams have been going on for decades. This is just the next obvious extension of the grift.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm only speculating, but it could be a licensing issue, i.e. the book is only licensed to the student - and its author compensated - if the book is used.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Unintended consequences of generous student loans
I've come to the conclusion that the US student loan system has a ton of unintended bad outcomes. Gut it -- perhaps by getting the government out and making it more realistic to discharge loans in bankruptcy.
Without that subsidy, very many schools would have to either dramatically lower tuition (and other expenses) or provide a really high-utility education.
Schools that primarily function to scam students out of student loan money would wither or adapt, perhaps by actually providing useful educations and successful job-search assistance.
And future students would be in a better place to get on with life -- buying houses and starting families -- without the delays and burdens of student loan debt. And could buy me another beer.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Unintended consequences of generous student loans
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
irony...
Ironically, the use of ebooks would help to remedy the situation he criticizes. Also, seeing as he didn't use a textbook for 10 years (how rare is that!), a smart guy would have put together his own 'official textbook', partnered with the EDMC, and then made a little money on the side.
Maybe that's what he's grumpy about ...a missed opportunity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: irony...
There are many profs who balk at the pressure of required textbook(s). They think the students are there to learn, not be milked - weird huh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Digital Bookshelf
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Digital Bookshelf
[ link to this | view in chronology ]