By Hemesh Patel
Daily Bruin Contributor
Starting next year, students at UCLA and any other public
college campus in California will not be able to access lecture
notes from commercial companies.
AB 1773, a bill Gov. Gray Davis signed last week, prohibits the
unauthorized recording and publication of a professor’s
lecture at any UC, CSU or community college campus.
Because they are authorized by the university, the bill does not
affect ASUCLA lecture notes sold in Ackerman.
This bill is the first of its kind and states including Florida,
New York and North Carolina have inquired about the new
legislation, according to Dennis Hall, legislative director to
assemblywoman Gloria Romero, D-Monterey Park, the bill’s
author.
“˜”˜The state of California already had a civil code
that gives the right of a faculty member to own his or her
lecture,” Hall said.
He said this new bill was put into effect to stop the commercial
exploitation of what is said during lectures, which are owned by
the faculty.
“Versity.com would recruit students who may or may not be
enrolled in the campus,” he said. “They would get about
thirty dollars a quarter.”
Officials at Versity.com, an online note-taking company which
recently merged with CollegeClub.com, said they are not sure
whether or not they will continue to post lecture notes on the
Internet.
“We are currently reevaluating that piece of
business,” said Lisa Wayne, spokeswoman for CollegeClub.com.
“No lecture notes are posted yet.”
This distribution of notes on the Internet has been a concern
for the university in the past.
“At UCLA in Spring Quarter 2000, one commercial Web site
company hired approximately 30 students and posted course lecture
notes on their Web site without faculty authorization,” said
John Sandbrook, assistant provost for the College of Letters and
Sciences.
Sandbrook said at least twelve faculty members registered
complaints with the office of the provost, asking for assistance or
for them to intercede with the offending companies.
“The company refused requests from me and from members of
the faculty to halt this practice,” he said.
But some professors don’t think the commercial
distribution of lecture notes on the Internet is a problem.
“I certainly use lecture notes and I think they’re
invaluable,” said Robert Brown, professor of art history.
“I would think the bill is kind of not necessary if the
lecture notes authorized by the university are not getting across
to the students.”
Brown, who writes his own lecture notes, said he believes that
the problem can work itself out without government interference
because students are capable of distinguishing between poor and
well-written lecture notes.
“If they’re good, then who cares?” he said.
“But if the professor does not review the notes, then there
could be a problem.”
Sandbrook said several faculty members complained to him that
the lecture notes on the Internet were inferior and in some cases,
absolutely incorrect.
“Students relying upon them would be learning the opposite
of what was being taught,” he said.
Hall said there were no means of checking over the notes for
precision.
But this problem is not unique to commercial Web sites, as
students have found inaccuracies in the university’s notes as
well.
“Occasionally we get complaints by people who are really
meticulous,” said Roberta Ross, a third-year mathematics
student who works with Lecture Notes at the UCLA Store.
She added they sometimes get a bad note-taker, but this problem
is taken care of earlier on in the quarter.
“Sometimes the notes are not as accurate as the actual
lecture is. I find a lot of typos, mostly in science
classes,” said Paolo Daniele, a third year French and
political science student.