AAUP criticizes PA legislature

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has issued an open letter titled "Academic Freedom in Pennsylvania" which criticizes some of the wording of a bill passed by the Pennsylvania Senate on Friday. The Bill, SB 929, called the College Textbook Policies Affordability, Accountability and Accessibility Act, concerns the AAUP because it would seem to dictate specific choices to professors on which books to select. The bill has not yet been taken up by the PA House of Representatives. The AAUP letter states that "The Pennsylvania legislation is also worrying because it is part of a national trend to regulate textbook selection. Certainly rising textbook prices are a serious matter. Increased availability of electronic versions of textbooks that certainly should prove less expensive is likely an inevitable feature of a changing marketplace. But the main ways to reduce the expense of a college education are to increase state appropriations to public colleges and universities and to eliminate unnecessary administrative positions."