Butler University professors need to put students first when deciding what books they will use in class.

Professors should evaluate their students’ financial burden when deciding what books will be used. Professors should also think twice before assigning a book with their name on it.

Professors who peddle their own books can be found across campus in various academic disciplines.

Forcing students to buy a professor’s book ensures that the book will be sold, while ignoring much of the other scholarly thought about the given subject.

Butler students should be exposed to as much academic thought as possible, and a professor should be encouraged to consider more than his or her viewpoint.

Other professors seem to assign books because they feel compelled to do so, not because they have any intention of using them in class or for class purposes.

Some professors assign books they do not use in class, books they later decide against using or books that have not been published yet.

In any case, Butler students have little chance to recover the cost of their books.

The Butler bookstore’s return policy makes it difficult for students to return the books if the professor waits more than a week to tell the students they will not need a specific text.

Reselling a text can be even more complicated if a newer edition has supplanted the one a student owns.

Teachers must act more considerately and responsibly.

Professors should not tell students to pick three books from a list of six when they only intend to discuss a certain three in class or assign expensive books when more cost-effective options exist.

We do not mean to suggest that Butler professors knowingly cause such problems, but they may have subconsciously done so.

Professors should clearly inform students about what texts they intend to use and for what purposes, or else to what end.

If Butler students must pay several hundred dollars for books, we should hope that they would serve as more than very expensive coasters on Friday nights.

Butler professors should stop judging books by their covers and start looking at their price tag and utility.

*Contact Editor-In-Chief, Colin Likas, with any response to staff editorials