With tuition and textbooks costs already sparking debate, campus community members can also disagree over the question of whether course packs are an asset to class or an imposed financial burden.
A course pack is an assortment of readings, reprinted articles, journal excerpts and other course material printed out and often placed in a binder. These can be used as a replacement or a supplement to a course textbook.
“I don’t use them because I have found them to be relatively expensive,” Richard Blackburn, professor of organizational behavior, said in an email referring to course packs. “The permission fees to use some articles and cases can be fairly substantial.”
Asked how much the University makes on course pack sales, Director of Auxiliary Services Scott Myers said all course material sales are automatically discounted by 10 percent for students.
"The University earns 6 percent commission on course material sales up to $6 million and 8 percent commission on course material sales greater than $6 million," Myers said in an email. "All proceeds from UNC Student Stores support student scholarships."
Adriana Jordan, a first-year majoring in business administration, took a class last semester that used a course pack. She said if all the readings had not been incorporated into a course pack, she would have had to buy them all separately, which would have ended up being more expensive.
Course packs are often used for classes in the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Stephen Arbogast, a finance professor, said in an email that because of their inclusion of case studies, course packs are a fundamental teaching tool in the business school.
“Case studies are an effective means of conveying to business students core lessons from actual business experience,” he said in the email.
Robert Atkinson, a senior majoring in business administration, said he has a favorable opinion on course packs. With his experience in Kenan-Flagler, he said he uses them for case studies published by Harvard Business Review.
