
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 13, 1993                   TAG: 9312130057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: GAINESVILLE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

MISSED A CLASS OR SO? JUST BUY THE NOTES . . .

University of Florida senior Amy Garcia skipped five of six of her basic economics, sociology and geology classes and still did well. She managed A's and B's, she said, because she invested in `A' Plus Notes, an off-campus business that sells class notes.

Sophomore John McGovern attends nearly every one of his professors' lectures, but still has spent $75 on `A' Plus Notes for his theater, comparative politics and American government classes.

"Two out of three kids use them," said McGovern. "These notes are just reassurance that you haven't missed anything important. `A' Plus Notes are here to stay."

University officials hope not. They say the business has encouraged hundreds of students to skip class, and the university has spent more than $100,000 in legal fees to try to stop the company from taking notes and selling them without professors' permission.

In a case closely watched by similar businesses at about 20 other universities, a federal jury here two weeks ago rejected UF's contention that `A' Plus violated the university's and professors' copyright claim to lectures.

The school may appeal, and `A' Plus owner Ken Brickman, a UF alumnus, already has filed a counter lawsuit. He wants damages, and argues that the university destroyed his plans to expand.

While the legal debate lumbers on in the courts, it is feeding a bigger one on campus. On one side, students call buying notes a shrewd way of protesting huge, impersonal classes. It is only auditorium-size classes that students skip without being noticed, and those are the only classes where there are enough students to make note-taking profitable. `A' Plus offers notes for 70 classes, some of which have 1,000 or more students.

"Part of the problem are these classes with hundreds of students in them," said senior Jennifer Liston. So many students enrolled in both her microeconomics and macroeconomics classes that hundreds were told to watch the lectures on television replay. Most students hated it, Liston said. "If you had a question, you couldn't raise your hand and ask the TV."

Even some professors call professional notes useful - a kind of Everyman, affordable tutor.

Others see the practice as despicable. Ralph Lowenstein, the dean of UF's School of Journalism and Communications, said hiring someone to take notes is not much better than hiring someone to write a term paper: "It's a no-fault, low-tech form of cheating."

by CNB