In my state funded college, each department head selects a requriered
text book for each of there classes. This information is then sent to
the dean's office and compiled. After being compiled it is sent to a
privately owned campus bookstore for ordering.

My question is.
Can the college deny the request of this information to be made
avalible to the students. Is there any statute in the Freedom of
Inforation act, or any other legislation that would make this
manditory for the college to make this information avalible to the
students if requested.

---

Clarification of Question by mabmojo-ga on 20 May 2004 21:32 PDT

The problem is that the privatly owned bookstore will not tell you
what book is required for the class that you want. You present your
class number, you pay then recive your book. There is no book
information on the class sylabus. Even if there was book information
published on the class sylabus it would be to late to order your book
from a compeditor of the campus bookstore.

What i want is for the list that is sent form the college to the
private bookstore to be made avaible to the students. the list
contians the author title edition and isbn number that corisponds with
each class.

The problem is that it is vary difficult to find out what book you
need for each class with out actually buying it from the private
"follet inc" bookstore. Thus creating somewhat of a monopoly.

---

Clarification of Question by mabmojo-ga on 21 May 2004 07:08 PDT

@apteryx-ga , Right on the nose my friend. Exactly!

---

Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 21 May 2004 07:48 PDT

Hi, mabmojo-ga:

I notice that you describe the college as "state funded".  This might
include private educational institutions that receive some state
funds.

On the other hand you describe the campus bookstore as "privately
owned".  Again this does not exclude the case that the bookstore
owners are the same as the "owners" of the college.

If we knew more about the particular college that you are concerned
with, then the legal recourse to opening up the textbook purchasing
process to competition could be outlined with a great deal more
confidence.

regards, mathtalk-ga

---

Clarification of Question by mabmojo-ga on 21 May 2004 09:00 PDT

The college that i am speaking of is Edison Commuity Colleg of Fort
Myers/ Naples Florida. The bookstore is privatly owned and operated by
Follet Inc. I guess what i am trying to say is that the school is a
public state school and the bookstore is seperate profit seeking
corperation.

I hope this helps and thank you all

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 21 May 2004 11:54 PDT

It sounds absolutely outrageous that the college would conspire like
that to withhold information from its students.  It quite possibly
might be an improper restraint of trade, in addition to a violation of
Florida's Freedom of Information law.

Florida has one of the most aggressive FOI laws in the country, with
the underlying philosophy described this way by one observer:

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Rick/

"After all, government records are created by people on public
payrolls paid for by the taxpayers. Therefore, the records belong to
the people, not the government."

The bookstore, as a private business, is probably not subject to
Florida's FOI law, but the college probably is.

The closest I could come to a legal opinion is this:


http://myfloridalegal.com/sun.nsf/manual/A342F688127D5AFD852566F30055F8C8?OpenDocument

In a more recent case, Silver Express Company v. District Board of
Lower Tribunal Trustees, 691 So. 2d 1099 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997), the
district court determined that a committee (composed of staff and one
outside person) that was created by a college purchasing director to
assist and advise her in evaluating contract proposals was subject to
the Sunshine Law.

==========



Why not contact the Dean's Office, and let them know that they can
provide you the information you are asking for, OR they can have the
pleasure of responding to the formal FOI request that you are planning
to send them.

I bet you they cough up the book list!

Let us know if you need any information or advice to move forward on this.  

pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by mabmojo-ga on 21 May 2004 14:21 PDT

It may be just as simple as asking for the list and the dean giving it
up. However if you read the article writtin about me and my prior
efforts, i dont think they will go with out a fight. I just wanted to
get all my ducks in a row. idealy i would like there to be some
legislation already on the books to support my request. Because follet
inc is the biggest company in the usa that is contracted out for
bookstores. Over 600 in the US. If it could work in my school i could
pass it along to other students in other public colleges.

Efforts have already been made but to deff ears. A couple students
that tried to oranize a book trade in Private St Thomas University
were suspended

---

Request for Question Clarification by mathtalk-ga on 21 May 2004 16:48 PDT

To quote from the article whose link you posted:

"[Campus president] Slusher said there was no policy, state or
campus-wide, that would prohibit Burkard or any other student from
operating a book service, especially a nonprofit one."

My suggestion is to start with the drop of honey approach.  Make an
appointment to see the campus president, thank him for the kind words
of support in your efforts to save money on textbooks, and explain the
concern you have about getting the list of required textbooks at the
same time that the campus bookstore does.  Be gracious, and if he
offers to "look into it", then ask when you can expect to hear from
him.

In reality students have a fundamental political weakness on campus
because of their fairly transient presence.  This is especially true
at two-year colleges.  You are within your fair rights to demand equal
access to the information as the (privately owned and operated)
bookstore, and I have no doubt that with sufficient effort you would
succeed in getting the information.  Once.

Then they would forget such a problem had ever occurred in the past
and act quite suprised and uninformed the next term.

So what you really would need to do, to put this on a business-like
footing, is have the college policies and procedures amended so that
the textbook selections are simply posted on their Web site:

[Edison Community College]
http://www.edison.edu/

in a timely manner.  In particular you might contact your state
representative, if the college proves uncooperative, or at least one
in the Ft. Myers, FL area, and ask for their assistance.  Generally
speaking students that show a lot of initiative, esp. in a business
setting, will be treated well by politicians.

In reviewing the college web site earlier (it seems to be down for the
moment), I could not find any mention of a college newspaper, although
there is a journalism department according to the class listings.  If
there is a student newspaper, this would be far and away a better
method to promote your operation than handing out leaflets in front of
your competition's store.

Let us know how you make out!

regards from a former student activist, 
mathtalk-ga

---

Clarification of Question by mabmojo-ga on 21 May 2004 21:04 PDT

I totally agree with the drop of honey aproach. However what slusher
siad in the artical was nothing more than lip service. I was threatend
with all sorts of expaulshion, lawsuits all which were totaly
ungrounded. I still am going to make a nice aproach to the issue. But
i just want to get all much ducks in a row. If the nice route does not
work out. Unfortuantly i dont think it is going to work out that way.

I'm confused. Don't you receive a list of required texts along with
your syllabus the first day of classes? Also, wouldn't your bookstore
tell you which books are required texts if you give them a call? They
are of course selling them to you.

skermit-ga

Are you actually asking if the state-funded college must make the
TEXTBOOKS themselves or their content available under FOIA since the
college has selected and mandated that you use those texts?  Is that
the question?

If so, the answer is no.  Just because a state-funded college selects
and mandates students' use of a particular text, there is no
requirement for the college to provide, nor, frankly, an "entitlement"
for the students to be provided with, the textbooks or their content.

If you are indeed asking about the textbook list, then I agree with
skermit and am also confused.

If I understand mabmojo's question correctly, the questioner wants to
know if students have legal grounds for demanding to know the list of
required readings without going through the private supplier.  If a
student is taking, say, GA101, the student does not see a syllabus
that shows the textbook as Freud, P., "How to Ask a Great Question." 
Instead the student goes to Follet and says, "I'm taking GA101," and
the clerk hands the student a copy of the book, which the student
purchases at the going rate.

I think mabmojo wants to be able to shop around and perhaps find the
books at a better price, but you can't do that if no one will tell you
what the book is.  So mabmojo wants to know if there is any legal
basis for compelling either the school or the store to hand over the
information, preferably long enough in advance of the start of classes
so there's time to order the books.  Alternately, is there any legal
basis for the school's withholding it?  Once students are starting to
buy the books, it's too late to start shopping.

Mabmojo, did I get that right?

Apteryx

I just wanted to share with yall this article written about my efforts.
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_2565794,00.html

Interesting, mabmojo, and very enterprising.

So what state are we talking about here?  Like most of these community
newspaper websites and even many town and city websites, they assume
that you know.  But someone (like us GAers) could land here from
anywhere and not have a clue.

I don't know about this Edison-named school, but I do know that Edison
schools are a business that contract with school districts to provide
educational services (= schools) that are in some sense no longer
really "public" schools.  To me it's a scary trend.

Good luck with your project.

Apteryx

The story that i posted is only somewhat related to this topic but i
thought would put some lite on the topic.

My college is named edison community college i think because Thomas
edison spent many years here in fort myers florida and there are many
things named after him here in my area.

I am almost positive that the school is public. I guess for the sake
of this question we will asume that it is.

Thank you all for your responses