FREEBIES AND OTHER INDUCEMENTS

Author: RICKI LEWIS

* The instructor of a 500-student nutrition class is offered $500 if she orders a particular book. The payment is for keeping a diary of student reactions to the text.

* A biology department has whittled down its choice to three books. One publisher offers the department $1 for every book ordered, to be used for educational equipment.

* The text selection committee of a university science department has made a decision, but changes its mind at the zero hour. Why? The publisher of the second- choice text offers the department a videodisk player if they adopt the book.

Many professors and departments encourage such practices, which can be viewed as either bribes or legitimate marketing ploys. Richard McKenzie, a professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, was appalled at schools' requests for inducements to adopt his textbook The New World...

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