UNREAL ESTATE
In Silicon Valley, the costliest housing market in the United States, colleges are having trouble hiring professors, who can't afford to live there: A16

CONSIDERING CENSURE
The American Association of University Professors says that Albertus Magnus College violated the due-process rights of a gay faculty member when it dismissed him: A18

PEER REVIEW
A Yale mathematician attacks a history-department recruit over his book on the David Baltimore case. ... Louisville's Jon Jory will join the faculty at the University of Washington's School of Drama: A14

A dentistry professor at the University of Michigan has sued the institution over its decision to change the grades of four students from failing to passing: A16

A radical group of environmentalists has taken credit for a laboratory fire that destroyed biotechnology research at Michigan State University: A18

Full-time lecturers at Eastern Michigan University have won the right to unionize: A18

Two business schools in Europe were among those achieving a worldwide rank in the top 10, according to the Financial Times: A53

'THE THINKING HEADBANGER'S GUIDE'
A scholar's cultural history of the electric guitar touches on race, gender, and theories of noise. Accompanying the story are musical selections mentioned in the book and performed by its author, Steve Waksman: A19

IT'S SNOWING UNDER THE SEA
Determining the origin and behavior of organic colloids, abundant but little-understood seaborne particles, may offer clues to understanding global warming: A20

A CAUSE OF BREAST CANCER
Researchers have found that a virus carried by mice may be linked to almost half of all cases of the disease in North America: A22

HOT TYPE
The University of Wisconsin Press hopes to publish an anthology of short stories on college life edited by a prize-winning writer. ... After 25 years, the editor in chief of Yale University Press heads for the University of North Carolina Press: A22

DIGGING UP A DEBATE
Confronted by the online auction of an unusually intact specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex, paleontologists fear that scientifically valuable fossils will disappear from the public domain: A45

TRUE BELIEVERS IN AMERICA
In writing a critical ethnography of literalism, Vincent Crapanzano, a professor of anthropology and comparative literature at the City University of New York, sees a system of interpreting reality that is far more widespread in the United States than most people are prepared to accept: B4

New scholarly books: A24-26

• Nota Bene: Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India, Purnima Mankekar.

• Verbatim: The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life, by Michael Warner.

President Clinton has named 12 recipients of the 1999 National Medal of Science: A54

COMPETITION FOR STATE DOLLARS
Texas -- like other states -- is trying to figure out how many research universities it needs, and how to pay for the aspirations of various institutions: A28

WHOSE MONEY?
Higher-education lobbyists object to a plan by the Education Department that would, they contend, give the government an unprecedented say in how colleges distribute their aid dollars: A31

FLEXIBILITY FOR GUARANTEE AGENCIES
Banks and supporters of the direct-loan program say that the Education Department's new relationship with some guarantors could give the agencies an unfair advantage: A32

• Student-loan guarantors in Pennsylvania and five other states have been selected by the department to participate in a pilot program: A32

THE CLINTON AGENDA
The president used his final State of the Union address to push plans for expanded tax breaks for college costs and incentives for charitable giving: A34

TEXAS-SIZED WHEELING AND DEALING
The multibillion-dollar endowments of Harvard University and the University of Texas have been linked to Gov. George W. Bush's financial and political rise: A35

Bob Jones University packed its assembly hall for a presidential-campaign appearance by Gov. George W. Bush: A28

The College Board's president has fired four top officials in its Washington office: A28

The organization that administers the ACT examination plans to build a network of job-skills centers at community colleges nationwide: A30

TEXAS-SIZED WHEELING AND DEALING
The multibillion-dollar endowments of Harvard University and the University of Texas have been linked to Gov. George W. Bush's financial and political rise: A35

UNREAL ESTATE
In Silicon Valley, the costliest housing market in the United States, colleges are having trouble hiring professors, who can't afford to live there: A16

SUING 'ASK JEEVES'
Two professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have accused the corporation that runs the Internet search engine of patent infringement: A43

UNWANTED TRADITIONS?
Officials at a number of colleges are becoming increasingly worried over alcohol-soaked campus rituals that many students and alumni regard as rites of passage: A49

Tallahassee Community College is sponsoring a racing car as a means of raising its profile: A35

The endowment investments of several elite colleges have been linked to a controversial racetrack in Massachusetts: A36

The late president of Rockhurst University, who was a Jesuit, reportedly died of AIDS: A36

Five institutions have provided updates on their capital campaigns: A37

Prime Numbers: The nation's unemployment rate is at a 30-year low, but college towns don't necessarily reflect that decline: A14

Bond-rating update for January 2000: A36

Foundation grants; gifts and bequests: A37

DISTANCE EDUCATION'S NEW HURDLE
Whether because of busy lives or inexperienced teachers, students appear to drop online courses more often than traditional classes: A39

SUING 'ASK JEEVES'
Two professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have accused the corporation that runs the Internet search engine of patent infringement: A43

A NURSING SHORTAGE
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is using online courses to train the health-care workers that the state needs: A43

DIGGING UP A DEBATE
Confronted by the online auction of an unusually intact specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex, paleontologists fear that scientifically valuable fossils will disappear from the public domain: A45

A NOMAD'S WORK
A 1,600-pound robotic rover designed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University is able to discover and identify Antarctic meteorites: A47

LOGGING IN
Arlene Krebs, the author of The Distance Learning Funding Sourcebook, tells how to get grants for online programs: A43

John A. Logan College is attracting students with offbeat online courses, such as the history of the Beatles: A39

A Web site at California State University at Long Beach provides students with tours of volcanoes: A40

National Technological University is using the Internet to distribute its traditional telecourses: A45

UNWANTED TRADITIONS?
Officials at a number of colleges are becoming increasingly worried over alcohol-soaked campus rituals that many students and alumni regard as rites of passage: A49

THE COST OF COLLEGE
David W. Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, asks: Is Williams College's decision not to raise its tuition rate next year a laudatory example of price leadership, or a misbegotten attempt to discipline the market? A64

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale has quietly lifted a ban on booze at its fraternities: A49

Princeton University will increase its already-generous student-aid packages for middle-income students: A49

Short Subjects: arts students in Boston crawl toward enlightenment; theater professors sued by Utah student spurning profanity; Web site offers a $10,000 scholarship a day; student protesters drive Kissinger from Texas: A12

BANNING GAMBLING
Two U.S. senators, with backing from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, introduced legislation last week to outlaw betting on college games: A48

CHANGING ELIGIBILITY RULES
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has altered its approach to certifying the legitimacy of athletes' high-school courses: A48

People in athletics: A48

OUT OF JAIL IN BEIJING
Just released by China after six months of imprisonment over his research, a scholar from Dickinson College reflects on his victory for academic freedom: A51

THE FUTURE OF ACADEMIC EXCHANGES
In the aftermath of the cold war, the programs have lost their geopolitical rationale. Now some countries seem to be viewing them only as a source of fee-paying foreign students: A52

THE SEASON FOR BALLS
Viennese university students, debutantes, and professionals waltz the January and February nights away at gala events with a long tradition: B2

Dispatch Case: British college plans an 18-hole golf course; South African student wins a reverse-discrimination battle; Iranian police officers to be charged for breaking into a dormitory: A51

British universities are joining forces with a credit-reference company to offer employers checks on the validity of the degrees that job applicants claim to hold: A53

Two business schools in Europe were among those achieving a worldwide rank in the top 10, according to the Financial Times: A53

Enrollments rose almost 50 percent at Russian universities from 1995 to 1999: A53

South Africa will allow two foreign colleges to open branch campuses there: A53

THE COST OF COLLEGE
David W. Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, asks: Is Williams College's decision not to raise its tuition rate next year a laudatory example of price leadership, or a misbegotten attempt to discipline the market? A64

TRUE BELIEVERS IN AMERICA
In writing a critical ethnography of literalism, Vincent Crapanzano, a professor of anthropology and comparative literature at the City University of New York, sees a system of interpreting reality that is far more widespread in the United States than most people are prepared to accept: B4

ROSES, CHOCOLATE, STAPLER
Aristophanes and Rilke considered how the fundamental things apply to love. So does Rachel Toor, a former editor at Oxford and Duke University Presses, who now works in admissions at Duke University: B7

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL
The power of television is apparent even in its absence, writes William F.S. Miles, whose family was telecelibate by necessity in the South Pacific, and now, back home, by choice. The author is a professor of political science at Northeastern University: B8

THERAPY'S TALKING CURE
Pouring out one's troubles to a psychiatrist works -- at least at the movies, writes Krin Gabbard, chairman of the comparative-literature department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook: B9

Marginalia: mistakes, foibles, and other amusements on the lighter side of academe: A12

• Is a degree from an elite institution worth all the money that it costs?: B3

• Leadership at the M.L.A.: B11

• Cartoon demeans custodians: B11

• Dating in academe: B11

'THE THINKING HEADBANGER'S GUIDE'
A scholar's cultural history of the electric guitar touches on race, gender, and theories of noise. Accompanying the story are musical selections mentioned in the book and performed by its author, Steve Waksman: A19

THERAPY'S TALKING CURE
Pouring out one's troubles to a psychiatrist works -- at least at the movies, writes Krin Gabbard, chairman of the comparative-literature department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook: B9

'STRUGGLE AND SURVIVE'
The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women From Colonial America to the Present has just been published by Indiana University Press: B100

• APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS on U.S. campuses.

• DEATHS of people in academe.

• COMING EVENTS: conferences, workshops, and seminars.

• DEADLINES for fellowships, grants, the submission of papers, and more.

DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe.