In letters to editors throughout the state, Ron Pynn, TAA executive director, called the proposal ill-advised. Governor Tom Ridge and the SSHE Board of Governors find it necessary to partially fund higher education in Pennsylvania by extracting flesh from the hides of its faculty. It would demand repayment of sabbatical leave pay as well as take a cut of royalties generated on books and articles published. To disclose a book or article before it is created is painfully absurd because it shows a complete lack of understanding for the creative intellectual process in writing forthe academic world.
Publication is a noteworthy achievement for a faculty and their university.
Pynn further noted that for most authors, royalty income is not a major source of income. The text and academic authors from the Text and Academic Authors Association call upon the governor of Pennsylvania and the Board of Governors for the Pennsylvania System of Higher Education to abandon its position on income from intellectual property, Do not confiscate the rights and royalties from the scholarly works of faculty, Pynn said. Institutions ought to be encouraging the communication of knowledge among faculty and students, not scrounging for dollars off their success.