From the issue dated January 12, 2001
THE FACULTY
PSYCH FLIGHT
An increasing number of new psychology Ph.D.'s are finding better-paying, less-stressful jobs outside academe, and departments are seeing a loss in their investments.
LAW AT HOME AND ABROAD
New York University's Global Law School Program takes an international approach, attracting judges, scholars, and students from overseas.
DISCIPLINE ENVY
Scholars have long appropriated the terms and approaches of other fields. From such poaching, new disciplines are born, writes Marjorie Garber, a professor of English and director of the humanities center at Harvard University.
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- SETTLEMENT AT BENNINGTON: The college agreed to pay $1.89-million and apologize to 17 faculty members it fired in 1994.
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- COMPROMISE AT MLA: The association agreed to encourage departments to have at least half of their credits taught by tenure-track professors.
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- PEER REVIEW: A finalist for the presidency of the City University of New York's Hunter College takes heat from faculty members who say she is in the running only because of her political connections. ... Fordham University's English department fills its first endowed chair.
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- SYLLABUS: Students role-play on the geopolitical stage in "International Crisis Management," at George Mason University.
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- DEATH OF A PET: Programs at several universities provide owners of animal companions with advice and solace as they deal with loss.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
ACADEMIC DEBATE IN THE INTERNET AGE
When a scandal broke out in anthropology last year, e-mail was far more powerful than peer review.
SKIN-DEEP SCHOLARSHIP
In the classroom, Judith Sarnecki teaches French; outside it, she pursues tattoos and the stories behind them.
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- VERBATIM: Two indexes devised by researchers at Manchester College are designed to ascertain whether the United States is becoming more or less violent.
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- NOTA BENE: Like the streets of the Italian town in which it is set, the story in The Captain's Concubine: Love, Honor, and Violence in Renaissance Tuscany, by Donald Weinstein, takes more than a few twists and turns.
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- HOT TYPE: Fifteen journal editors at the Modern Language Association conference dispensed free advice to aspiring writers. ... High-ranking editors at New York University Press and Oxford University Press trade places.
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- CATTUS PETASATUS: Two classicists at the University of Kentucky have published a Latin translation, in rhyme, of Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat.
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
THE NOMINEE
President-elect George W. Bush chose Roderick R. Paige, Houston's school superintendent, as secretary of education. A college lobbyist calls him "an unknown quantity" in higher education.
HUMAN-RESEARCH GUIDELINES
A federal panel recommended streamlining rules and widening membership on institutional review boards.
DYSFUNCTIONAL SCHOOLS
The University of California's plan to admit the top students from each high school ran into problems at the local level.
HIGH-STAKES LOBBYING
As Congress reconvenes, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the gambling industry are renewing a battle over a proposed ban on betting on college sports.
REPORTING CAMPUS CRIME
The Clery Act of 1990 is confusing and unfocused. We need to rethink how campus crime statistics are gathered and conveyed, writes Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education.
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BUREAUCRATIC CITY
Academics invited to Washington to join a new administration should lower their expectations, writes Tim Brennan, a professor of policy sciences and economics at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
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- UNWELCOME TO OUR STATE: Donna E. Shalala, the outgoing U.S. secretary of health and human services, may receive a cool reception from South Florida's Hispanic community when she takes over as president of the University of Miami.
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- TRANSITION WATCH: The chancellor of North Carolina State University is being suggested as a prospective nominee to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
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- GOING CONSERVATIVE: Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives bucked seniority rules in choosing Rep. John Boehner of Ohio to head the chief education committee.
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- WORKING TOGETHER: Gov. Gray Davis of California approved funds for research partnerships involving public universities and private companies.
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- CAUGHT IN A CRUNCH: Oregon's 17 community colleges got a cash infusion as thousands of students languished on waiting lists.
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- OVERHAULING THE SYSTEM: Texas' new governor proposed replacing most state appropriations for public colleges with direct grants to students.
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- BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL: Louisiana state auditors called Grambling State University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe on the carpet.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
WATCHDOGS WITHOUT BITE?
A Chronicle review indicates that regional accreditors rarely and inconsistently come down hard on the colleges they are supposed to evaluate.
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- THE GIFT OF GIVING: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute received a $130-million pledge from an anonymous donor. ... A Georgia couple gave Mercer University and LaGrange College an office park valued at $123-million. ... The Lilly Endowment pledged $103-million to Indiana University at Indianapolis.
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- DATA NOT FOR SALE: Boston University has decided not to sell data from the federally financed Framingham heart study through a company established for that purpose.
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- INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION: Sylvan Learning Systems announced that it had bought a stake in a Chilean higher-education company.
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- CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Fifteen colleges have announced major fund drives, completed them, or increased the sums they are seeking to raise.
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BOND-RATING UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 2000
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- FOUNDATION GRANTS; GIFTS AND BEQUESTS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
VIRTUAL HOUSE CALLS
University medical centers are using telemedicine to provide care in prisons and in remote areas.
ACADEMIC DEBATE IN THE INTERNET AGE
When a scandal broke out in anthropology last year, e-mail was far more powerful than peer review.
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- OUT OF INK: In his online-composition courses at Anne Arundel Community College, David McDowell grades papers electronically -- with a virtual "red pen," cut-and-pasted comments, clip art, and even audio remarks.
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- HIGH-TECH LIVING: A new dormitory at the University of Maryland at College Park features the latest multimedia and wireless equipment.
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- WHAT'S IT CALLED? A poll suggests that few people actually call distance education "distance education."
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- EXPANSION IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Oakland University, in Michigan, has started an online M.B.A. program for students in Lebanon.
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- RECRUITMENT STRATEGY: Seeking more online students, Franklin University is forging links with community colleges.
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- USER-FRIENDLY: A new Web site is helping colleges put their student services online.
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- LOGGING IN WITH: Clifford A. Lynch, director of the Coalition for Networked Information, about "public key" security systems for certifying a person's identity online.
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- ITALIAN DISTANCE EDUCATION: A consortium is preparing to deliver courses for a pilot Ph.D. program in telecommunications.
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- QUALITY CONTROL: Australian officials criticized the offerings of a private online institution.
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- DOMAIN-NAME DISPUTE: An arbitrator awarded the N.C.A.A. 20 Web addresses that include the term "ncaa" but had been registered by a gambling operation.
STUDENTS
'FREE-SPEECH ZONES'
As colleges try a new tactic to regulate campus protests, some civil libertarians see a violation of rights.
REPORTING CAMPUS CRIME
The Clery Act of 1990 is confusing and unfocused. We need to rethink how campus crime statistics are gathered and conveyed, writes Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education.
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- THE BOSS GOES TO CLASS: Bruce Springsteen sat in on a Princeton University seminar, "Prophecy and the American Voice," taught by a noted music historian.
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- BUFFALO BURGERS: Students on several campuses are getting free samples of meat as part of a promotional effort by the North American Bison Cooperative.
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- OPENING THE DOOR: Duke University will now allow same-sex unions to take place in its chapel.
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- PRIME NUMBERS: The American Institute of Physics has released a list of 20 colleges that award the most physics B.A.'s to women.
ATHLETICS
HIGH-STAKES LOBBYING
As Congress reconvenes, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the gambling industry are renewing a battle over a proposed ban on betting on college sports.
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- ON THE COURT: A judge countermanded an N.C.A.A. decision against a Nigerian student, who is now allowed to play for the University of Louisville.
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- REPEAT OFFENDERS: The N.C.A.A. handed out penalties and warnings to teams at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Southern Methodist University.
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- COACH REINSTATED: Canisius College allowed its men's hockey coach to resume his duties after a five-day suspension for hitting a player in the head.
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- DOMAIN-NAME DISPUTE: An arbitrator awarded the N.C.A.A. 20 Web addresses that include the term "ncaa" but had been registered by a gambling operation.
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- PEOPLE IN ATHLETICS
INTERNATIONAL
LAW AT HOME AND ABROAD
New York University's Global Law School Program takes an international approach, attracting judges, scholars, and students from overseas.
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- WORLD BEAT: Academics and human-rights activists are protesting a Cuban crackdown on an independent-library movement. ... A professor will become the second woman to lead a national university in Japan.
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- TUNISIAN IS SENTENCED: Scholars are criticizing the 12-month term imposed on a human-rights activist and educator who was charged with belonging to a forbidden group.
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- DEFENDING ITS GOOD NAME: South Korea's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that barred a publisher from using Harvard University's name without permission.
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- MURDERER CONFESSES: A Yemeni court sentenced to death a Sudanese man who had killed 16 women, including six college students.
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- CLASHES IN BANGLADESH: Thousands of students rioted after professors tried to stop them from cheating on an English examination.
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- INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION: Sylvan Learning Systems announced that it had bought a stake in a Chilean higher-education company.
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- EXPANSION IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Oakland University, in Michigan, has started an online M.B.A. program for students in Lebanon.
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- ITALIAN DISTANCE EDUCATION: A consortium is preparing to deliver courses for a pilot Ph.D. program in telecommunications.
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- QUALITY CONTROL: Australian officials criticized the offerings of a private online institution.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
DISCIPLINE ENVY
Scholars have long appropriated the terms and approaches of other fields. From such poaching, new disciplines are born, writes Marjorie Garber, a professor of English and director of the humanities center at Harvard University.
CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD
As a student created a fictional, ailing doppelganger of Lionel Trilling, the real-life counterpart was succumbing to cancer. Melvin Jules Bukiet, who teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College, recalls his encounter with the critic in the 1970's.
REPORTING CAMPUS CRIME
The Clery Act of 1990 is confusing and unfocused. We need to rethink how campus crime statistics are gathered and conveyed, writes Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education.
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BUREAUCRATIC CITY
Academics invited to Washington to join a new administration should lower their expectations, writes Tim Brennan, a professor of policy sciences and economics at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
LOOKING SMART
The dapper new Foreign Policy emphasizes geoeconomics over geopolitics. But will the substance be lost to the style? Martin Walker, a public-policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, reviews the new format.
HEALING THE EVERGLADES
A $7.8-billion ecological-rescue plan presents technical challenges and a high-stakes test case for restoration, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large.
A LIFE IN CIVIL RIGHTS
A new photobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. presents the man behind the icon.
BODIES POLITIC
Before they can help policymakers and the public, bioethicists need to avoid some common pitfalls in their own thinking, writes Gregory E. Pence, a professor of philosophy in the medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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- MELANGE: selections from recent books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GAZETTE
BULLETIN BOARD JOB NOTICES
DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS,
including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
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