A Guide to the April 14, 1995, Issue
of The Chronicle of Higher Education

INTERNATIONAL

IN BRAZIL, A PRIORITY ON EDUCATION
In an unusual twist for this country, education policy is now in the hands of academics: Both the President and the Education Minister come from academe. In recent weeks, the new government has announced plans to improve public schools and to evaluate higher-education institutions at regular intervals.

IN THE UNITED STATES, A CUTBACK IN FOREIGN STUDY
The National Security Education Program, a $150-million trust fund that supports language training and study abroad, was cut in half by negotiators in Congress last week.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITIES of St. Thomas -- a worldwide consortium of 10 private universities named for St. Thomas Aquinas -- will be formed next week. Its goal is to sponsor research, publishing, and other projects.

• IN LEBANON, THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT has raised most of the money it needs to pay for the reconstruction of College Hall, which was destroyed by a bomb in 1991.

• THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN BULGARIA, the only American liberal-arts college in eastern Europe, will graduate its first class next month. Its U.S. partner is the University of Maine.

• A SATELLITE DESIGNED AND BUILT by a team at Mexico's National Autonomous University was destroyed when the Russian rocket carrying it blew up during its launch.

• PERU HAS ESTABLISHED a national council responsible for approving new universities and regulating higher education -- functions that were formerly discharged by Congress.

RESEARCH & PUBLISHING

EASING THE STRESS OF JURY DUTY
Scholars and court officials are beginning to study the trauma some jurors suffer both during and after long criminal trials. The trauma, often prompted by gruesome evidence of heinous crimes, can cause psychological or physical fallout, and researchers are seeking ways to mitigate it.

RESEARCH NOT IN COMPLIANCE
In an action kept secret until now, the federal government in December halted research on human subjects at the University of Virginia and shut down a panel charged with overseeing it. The move suggests that federal officials are monitoring lapses in research procedures more aggressively than before.

• A SESSION AT THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS' annual meeting drew several hundred scholars to discuss political history, a field largely abandoned in favor of social, gender, or racial history. Signs of political history's revival were in the air at the meeting.

• HOT TYPE.
  • Yale University Press is inaugurating its Annals of Communism series with a book that documents for the first time extensive ties between the American Communist Party and the Soviet Union. "The Secret World of American Communism," based on recently opened archives in the former U.S.S.R., reveals that Moscow provided millions of dollars to the U.S. party, giving the lie to the notion that American Communists were purely homegrown. They also engaged in espionage for Soviet intelligence.
  • Columbia University awarded Bancroft Prizes in American history last week to John L. Brooke and John Dittmer, of Tufts and Depauw Universities, respectively.

• 59 NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS, briefly described.
  • Nota Bene: Color Codes: Modern Theories of Color in Philosophy, Painting and Architecture, Literature, Music, and Psychology, by Charles A. Riley, II, a professor of English at the City University of New York's Baruch College.

PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL CONCERNS

• Are scholars who are asked to review tenure candidates likely to be more forthcoming if they think their opinions will remain secret? Some academics say that the publication of tenure-related documents will disrupt the process and make it unreliable.

• The race of a tenure candidate can sometimes gain him or her special consideration, but one Ohio State professor says her "unique status" was as much a burden as a boost to her chances.

• Tenure often involves questions of timing. Experiments don't run smoothly, grant money comes slowly, and "biological clocks" tick quickly. Some talented scholars just don't reach their potential in time.

• Of course, for a handful of outstanding scholars -- who excel in teaching, research, and campus service -- the tenure process is a breeze.

• At branch campuses, where professors often have to wear several hats, teaching skills are considered more important in tenure decisions.

• In fields like industrial design, tenure candidates bear a special burden: It's hard to measure ability when an evaluation of it is inherently subjective.

• One professor's tenure odyssey at Ohio State: the story of a chemist who took time out to care for her children but still won tenure.

CUNY'S DEMOTION OF AFROCENTRIST IS UPHELD
A federal appeals court last week reversed an earlier decision, clearing the way for the City University of New York to remove Leonard Jeffries, Jr., as chairman of the black-studies department at City College. Mr. Jeffries has been accused of anti-Semitic and racist remarks.

• THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK HAS TRIED
  for four years to oust a tenured professor who was accused of sexual misconduct in his former role as a priest. Last month, it succeeded.

• TEACHING ASSISTANTS AT YALE UNIVERSITY
  staged a five-day strike last week and then voted, 600 to 166, to unionize. The vote defied the university, which has refused to recognize teaching assistants as anything but students.

• PROFESSORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
  at Arlington have voted overwhelmingly against the leadership of the provost, three weeks after the institution's president resigned under fire.

• A FORMER INSTRUCTOR OF ENGLISH HAS SUED
  Austin Community College, claiming he was fired after he complained about the administration's practice of changing students' grades without consulting faculty members.

• EIGHT NEW BOOKS on higher education.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

• "SATAN," A NEW SOFTWARE PACKAGE designed to help managers of computer systems find holes in their networks, could also make it easier for outsiders to break in.

• THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM'S CHANCELLOR, J. Michael Orenduff, resigned last week after a lengthy battle with faculty members over plans to establish an institution in the system devoted solely to distance education.

• A UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CLASSICIST has developed an on-line service for professors who want to know how technology can aid their teaching.

• MULTIMEDIA EXPERTS AT YALE UNIVERSITY have created an on-line guide to help people design and set up pages on the World-Wide Web.

• THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HAS PUT ON LINE an annual contest for students enrolled in teaching programs. The competitors must answer questions based on a classroom case study.

• FIVE NEW INTERNET MAILING LISTS.

FEDERAL & STATE GOVERNMENTS (U.S.A.)

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN VIRGINIA
Virginia this fall will join with three private colleges in the state to relieve overcrowding in public institutions. The state will pay 100 community-college graduates to attend the private colleges; the subsidies are equivalent to what Virginia pays to subsidize students at its public institutions.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN MICHIGAN
The Detroit College of Law, fed up with years of high costs to maintain its cramped quarters in the city, agreed in February to move its program to Michigan State University, in East Lansing. But the university's decision to issue bonds to finance a new $25-million law facility has drawn fire.

MISSISSIPPI'S NEW EDUCATION CHIEF
Thomas D. Layzell, the next Commissioner of Higher Education, supports the controversial, higher admissions standards that a federal judge last month ordered the state to adopt as part of a desegregation plan.

UNIVERSITIES TO HELP REBUILD CITIES
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded 14 universities across the country more than $7-million to help revitalize the depressed communities that surround them. The University of Illinois at Chicago is one recipient of the federal grants.

THE TALK OF THE NATION
Sheldon Hackney, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has announced the first 27 grants toward the "National Conversation," his project to encourage scholars and citizens to discuss common values and pluralism in the United States. Republican lawmakers remain skeptical.

HOUSE TAX BILL HAS TUITION INCENTIVE
The House last week passed a tax-cut bill that would encourage families to save money for college tuition by allowing them to make early, unpenalized withdrawals from Individual Retirement Accounts if the proceeds were used for this purpose.

INSTRUCTOR WITH AIDS TO BE REHIRED
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has settled a suit against Campbell University for firing a physical-education instructor with AIDS. The E.E.O.C. said the firing violated the Americans With Disabilities Act.

• THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK TOOK IT on the chin last week for requesting $200,000 from the cash-strapped state for more women's restrooms at CUNY's 11 senior colleges. There are now many more men's than women's restrooms.

• A LETTER FROM A MASSACHUSETTS HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENT to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy may keep alive a program that helps two students from each Congressional district to pursue degrees in science.

• CONGRESSIONAL CRITICS OF DIRECT LENDING stepped up their attacks last week, accusing Education Department officials of overstating the success of the program and not policing institutions whose students have high default rates.

• THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROVED a compromise bill last week that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars already committed to military-research and technology-transfer programs. The bill is expected to become law.

BUSINESS & PHILANTHROPY

SPEEDING TRANSCRIPTS ON LINE
With a standard format for exchanging transcripts and other student records electronically, colleges could save money by avoiding the voluminous paperwork required today. The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers promotes electronic exchanges.

WAYNE STATE GIVES UP PATENT
A medical-diagnostic company that had successfully sued the university for misappropriating a trade secret will gain the rights to a chemical compound used to test for infectious diseases and hormonal imbalances.

• STUDENTS AT CHABOT COLLEGE HAVE CHIPPED IN $5,000 to help pay for another organic-chemistry class. The course is required for several programs, and sections fill up quickly. The money was donated through the student government.

• STUDENTS AT NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE IN IOWA helped to raise money for computers during a three-week-long "phonathon" for the college's annual fund.

• FEDERAL OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN CALLED IN at Dartmouth College to help investigate hate mail that has been sent to black and gay people affiliated with the institution.

• A SMALL BOMB EXPLODED IN A LIBRARY on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick last week, and three bomb threats were telephoned to the university after the blast.

STUDENTS

FRESHMAN DISORIENTATION
Researchers at Harvard University have found that many freshmen at hard-drinking colleges quickly become binge drinkers, even if they don't plan to.

• MORE THAN 5,000 RAUCOUS STUDENTS AND OTHER FANS celebrated near the University of California at Los Angeles last week, after its men's basketball team won the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I championship.

• THOUSANDS OF POT SMOKERS GATHERED at the University of Michigan last week to celebrate the 24th annual Hash Bash, extol marijuana's uses, and promote its legalization.

• A SENIOR AT DAVIDSON COLLEGE IS DRAWING attention to disabled athletes by leading a group of handicapped bicyclists across 16 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.

• A GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT at New Mexico State University has been indicted on charges of raping and attempting to murder a pregnant student whom he had lured to his home.

ATHLETICS

BAYLOR COACH FOUND NOT GUILTY
A federal jury last week found the former men's basketball coach at the university not guilty of conspiracy and fraud. But the panel convicted three former assistants of his in the recruitment of five junior-college students in 1993.

• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: at the Final Four of the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament.
  • The Rainbow Commission on Fairness in Athletics used the season finale in men's basketball to highlight the dearth of blacks in key athletics positions at the four universities vying for the national title.
  • The National Collegiate Athletic Association's academic standards for freshman athletes may soon be the subject of a lawsuit.
  • The N.C.A.A. presidents commission will consider a plan that would give more power to college presidents and more autonomy to the association's divisions.

• JERRY TARKANIAN, ONE OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL'S biggest winners and greatest renegades, was hired last week to coach at his alma mater, California State University at Fresno.

• BROWN UNIVERSITY SAYS IT WILL APPEAL a district court's ruling last month that it discriminates against its female athletes.

• A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES is scheduled to hold a hearing on May 9 to consider Title IX and college sports.

OPINION & LETTERS

COLLEGES ARE STILL IN ALCOHOL DENIAL
On some campuses, officials are making great efforts to reduce alcohol abuse by students, but at others, they seem oblivious to its magnitude and effects. We must accept that excessive drinking is a common problem on campuses, and act on the assumption that merely marginal efforts will not resolve it, write Henry Wechsler and Charles Deutsch, of the Harvard School of Public Health, and George Dowdall, of St. Joseph's University.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• The crisis in scholarly communication.

• Affirmative action and African studies.

THE ARTS