UK moves to fire professor, says book sales 'stole from students.' He vows to fight.

http://www.kentucky.com/ ^ | 5/17/18 | LINDA BLACKFORD

[BBell]

University of Kentucky officials are trying to fire a tenured professor because they say he made students buy his book for classes he taught and then kept the proceeds without telling administrators.

The move against journalism faculty Buck Ryan – who was sanctioned for inappropriate behavior in 2016 — is nearly unprecedented for tenured faculty in the last 50 years at UK, and will be a test of UK’s tenure policies and procedures.

But UK struck a tough stance, with Provost David Blackwell saying in a statement to the Herald-Leader that Ryan “stole from students. And he used university resources to do it.”

An internal audit alleges Ryan had made his self-published book, "Writing Baby, Editing Dog and You: A Friendly Place to Begin Your Writing,” required reading for his students since 2009 and had made about $6,000 in royalties. The book cost $30 per copy. UK policy requires special administrative permission before professors can use their own books in their classes and also requires any royalties to be donated to the school or a charity. At one point, Ryan got the journalism department to pay for a reprinting of the book because, the audit says, officials assumed the book would be given to students, not sold.

Ryan says he will fight the charges, but declined to answer further questions. He instead provided a five-page letter to Dan O'Hair, dean of the College of Communications and Mike Farrell, interim director of the journalism school. In it, he said he submitted his book for review to both the dean and the director in 2008 as part of his merit review, and took that to mean he had permission to use it in classes.

"Never did I hear during 10 merit reviews by two journalism directors and two deans, from 2007-08 to 2016-17, that 'Writing

[bk1000]

Some of those professors who insist their book be used will have you buy the newest edition for several $hundred so you can’t get by with a used book that was the previous edition. There may be no difference that a reordering of chapters.

[oldtech]

Seems like his area of concern was for making a buck,less so for furthering education of his students. His fighting it would seem to prove the point.

[maddogtiger]

This racket has been going on long before I attended Auburn in the ‘60’s.

[maddogtiger]

This racket has been going on long before I attended Auburn in the ‘60’s.

[Dubh_Ghlase]

Many years ago I attended several classes run by a husband and wife professor team where they wrote their own class material and required the students to purchase it in order to take their classes. They then proceeded to change the material every semester so the students couldn't sell the last course materiel to new students. In other words, they had their own little money-making enterprise going that milked the students for all they could.

It was an eye-opener for me, and added to my already tainted view of the educational system and how it really was corrupt. Later found out how politically-correct and biased it was as well (a number of entitled students seemed to always get a pass). If there was white privilege there, I sure didn't see or experience it...

[jim_trent]

$30 cost is peanuts. My sons were in college 15 years ago and books cost WAAAAAAY more than that. In fact, many of the books I bought for college cost that much a little more than that over 50 years ago.