One University of Saskatchewan professor is threatening to deny access to grades if his students don’t pay an additional $30 for course materials.

On the first day of classes, Gordon Sparks informed students in his engineering economics class — both verbally and in the syllabus — that they would need to pay an additional fee for access to copyrighted material located on the course’s Blackboard homepage. Most students felt this material was equivalent to a textbook and considered the $30 fee optional.

That was not the case, as Sparks is now threatening academic repercussions for those students who have yet to pay the fee.

“You will be ”˜cutoff’ access to Blackboard and therefore will not get a grade in the class!” read one email from Sparks to his students.

Many students feel that Sparks doesn’t have the right to cut off Blackboard or to withhold grades simply because they choose not to access copyrighted material.

“My issue, essentially, is that it’s material that I don’t want. There are a lot of other classes that I’m taking where I haven’t bought the textbook” and have still been given a grade in the class, said student Steve Bachiu.

“It seems a lot like extortion to me because I’ve already paid the course fee,” he added. “I don’t think that a professor can cut people off from Blackboard.”

The course’s Blackboard provides students with access to copyrighted material from former University of New Brunswick professor Barry Bisson. The $30 fee goes directly to Bisson via the College of Engineering.

Bisson’s intellectual property includes the course manual, review exercises, spreadsheets, quizzes and weekly assignments.

Sparks said that by doing the weekly assignments and quizzes, students acknowledged their use of the intellectual property and, thus, that they need to pay the fee.

In previous years, Sparks did not allow students to access Blackboard until they had paid the fee. He took a more relaxed approach this year by giving students access to the material before they had paid for it.

This led to confusion amongst the students over which material was copyrighted and which was not. Bachiu was under the impression that only the notes and lectures were property of Bisson, and that the quizzes were not intellectual property.

He felt cheated for having to pay extra to take his course’s quizzes and assignments.

“You can’t charge access fees for tests and that is, essentially, what’s happening,” said Bachiu.

He suggests that the $30 be incorporated into the course’s tuition costs.

“I think something like this — because it involves access to Blackboard — should be incorporated into the student fees.”

Right now, each college has its own policies on professors instituting additional required fees for their courses. Sparks believes having the university monitor every professor who asks for a tuition raise would be too complicated.

“If the university had to do that, it would be chaos,” said Sparks.

Sparks obtained permission from the College of Engineering to add the required fee to his course. Bachiu would like to see some sort of universal regulation throughout the university, saying that the issue is not about the $30 but the process in which professors institute required fees.

He added that he does plan on paying the fee.

“I’d definitely rather be out thirty bucks than not get a mark in a class that is required.”

Bachiu also spoke to University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union vice president of academic affairs Kelsey Topola.

Topola could not recall any official policies the university has on how professor’s are to use Blackboard, but said she would bring Bachiu’s concerns to one of the university’s teaching and learning committee, academic support committee or copyright advisory committee.