You are in your first scheduled session at the University. Your prof says:

“You must buy these X books for the semester”
(on some level, that’s  ok, i guess)
“Copyright laws don’t allow you to photocopy more than 10% of the book”
(this is getting a bit weird)
“You should bring all your books to class”
(….)

“If I don’t see you with your own copy of the book, I won’t like it, and you don’t want that to happen”
(huh?!?)

(… you then realize that the author of the books is the instructor, and the build up to the threat makes sense)

As a student at the university, what do you do? What can you do without risking failing the course, and risking your career at the university?  Remember that in the background is the fact that throughout your educational career, you were being treated as an empty jar waiting for knowledge to be poured into you (at least that’s what the system and those that support it had you believe). Can you speak up?

More importantly, let’s shift our focus to the academic. How on earth can this behavior be reconciled with the goals of the university that employs you? As stated on the manual (available through the university’s website), the university, through research and teaching, aims to:

inspire and develop the values of intellectual freedom, free movement of ideas and dialogue, and tolerance to new or opposing views.
I placed this post under the “open” category because it’s anything but. I don’t have a category for closed and opportunistic. The problem of course isn’t just the individual instructor, but (s)he does keep oiling the cogs that keep the system going.
Throughout my career, students have come first. I spend hours upon hours, often taken from my leisure time, to work with them, to advice and help them, to ask more questions and to avoid providing simple answers. This kind of thing, student exploitation masqueradeing as education, not only frustrates me, but reinforces my belief in putting humanity at the center of education, regardless of discipline and level/grade.