From the issue dated December 13, 2002
THE FACULTY
NO TIME TO SCHMOOZE
With children in tow, scholars attending a meeting of the American Anthropological Association are themselves a study of how a society raises its young.
CONVENTION WISDOM
How one meeting participant survived semidarkness and the scheduling dead zone. By Lawrence A. Baines, associate vice president for academic affairs and director of the Center for Teacher Preparation at Mesa State College.
-
- DEAN QUITS UNDER CLOUD: The head of Berkeley's law school resigns amid a sexual-harassment investigation.
-
- TITLE RESCINDED: A lawyer charged with helping her client direct terrorist activities may not serve as a mentor for Stanford law students.
-
- REVERSAL AT HARVARD: The university disinvites, then reinvites, a speaker who had made incendiary comments about Israel.
-
- DIGITAL FINGER-POINTING: A Web site lets students anonymously accuse their professors of political bias; most of the complaints are of liberal indoctrination.
-
- FBI INQUIRY: Professors at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are upset about its role in the questioning of an Iraqi-born professor.
-
- OUT WITH IT: Editing decisions at the Columbia University Record anger members of the University Senate.
-
- PEER REVIEW: Henry Louis Gates Jr. turns down Princeton to stay at Harvard's Afro-American-studies department. ... Yale's provost will become the first woman to lead the University of Cambridge full time.
-
- SYLLABUS: A Princeton University professor has adopted a peer-led approach to teaching organic chemistry.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
COWBOYS, INDIANS, SCHOLARS
The Western -- as both formula novel and narrative film -- is turning 100, providing scholars with new impetus to analyze the most prominent genre in American culture.
- ALL-POINTS WESTERNS: The genre, which got its start by adapting influences from abroad, has taken root in a variety of cultures, each of which puts its own spin on the tales.
AMERICAN QUACK
Two books ponder the colorful career of John R. Brinkley, a Depression-era practitioner who used the radio to peddle a panacea for impotence.
THE FLEET IS IN
An armada of British warships has taken over part of the U.S. Naval Academy. The ships are meticulously crafted antique miniatures, and their position is in the museum.
INTERPRETIVE NETWORKS
How will the digital revolution affect the humanities? It all depends on whether scholars can put together their digital tools and recent work on the sociology of texts, writes Jerome J. McGann, a university professor at the University of Virginia.
BEYOND 'THE BLANK SLATE'
Can we rely on sociobiology's conclusions, or do they lack scientific rigor? asks Nora S. Newcombe, a professor of psychology at Temple University.
RAWLS, REMEMBERED
A giant among philosophers of justice was also, a colleague recalls, a modest and supportive teacher, an accomplished sailor, and a devotee of oatmeal cookies. By Samuel Freeman, a professor of philosophy and law at the University of Pennsylvania.
-
- VERBATIM: Leslie Fiedler talks about seeing his work cited, without warning, on The Sopranos.
-
- HOT TYPE: Daphne Patai will release an updated edition of Professing Feminism that aims to respond to critics. ... The feminist journal differences leaves Indiana University Press for Duke University Press.
-
- NOTA BENE: In Images of the Outcast, a professor of English at Northern Illinois University explores the world of the "Cries," a pictorial genre that drew its name from the hawkers and other street denizens of early modern and later London.
-
- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
SHOWDOWN AT THE SUPREME COURT
The justices will hear two cases involving racial preferences at the University of Michigan, with the fate of affirmative action in college admissions in the balance.
- THE DEFENDER: A law student at Michigan hopes that the Supreme Court will put affirmative action on stronger legal ground.
- THE PLAINTIFF: The woman at the center of a lawsuit against Michigan's admissions policy still hopes for a spot at its law school.
CAUGHT IN A DOWNDRAFT
State spending on higher education increased at the lowest rate in 10 years in 2002-3, as budget deficits led to the most sweeping cuts in appropriations since the early '90s.
GUIDANCE ON ADMISSIONS
Whether the Supreme Court upholds or strikes down Bakke, colleges should seize the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to diversity, writes Robert O'Neil, founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and a professor of law at the University of Virginia.
-
- DOWN ON THE FARM RULE: College lobbyists said a proposed change in federal subsidies to agriculture programs is unfair to private institutions.
-
- TO THE MEMORY HOLE? Critics at colleges say the U.S. Education Department is preparing to delete information from its Web site, in part because the material does not reflect the philosophies of the Bush administration.
-
- LEGAL BIND: Colleges are caught between a federal privacy law and FBI requests for information about foreign students.
-
- 'JUST BAD POLICY': A group representing Latinos and new immigrants objected to the Virginia attorney general's advising public colleges to deny entry to illegal immigrants.
-
- THE TWO-YEAR CURE: The University of Louisiana at Monroe got a clean bill of financial health from the state auditor, its first since accounting problems surfaced in 2000.
-
- FBI INQUIRY: Professors at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst are upset about its role in the questioning of an Iraqi-born professor.
-
- JURISDICTION DECISION: The California Supreme Court ruled that a movie-industry group cannot sue a former student who published online a code to unscramble encrypted DVD's.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
OUTSIDERS IN CHARGE
More colleges are hiring presidents from outside academe, a survey has found.
-
- BAD TIMES: A Standard & Poor's report predicts that some colleges might consolidate or close as they struggle financially.
-
- MERGER TALKS: The boards of two leading art colleges in the San Francisco area voted to consider teaming up.
-
- NO PAYCHECKS: Some employees of Knoxville College, which lost its accreditation six years ago, went unpaid for as long as a month this year.
-
- HORTICULTURIST PUNISHED: North Carolina State University placed a three-year consulting ban on a professor who failed to disclose his business dealings with companies that stood to benefit from his research.
-
- 5 NEW CAMPAIGNS: Houghton College, North Carolina A&T State University, Rowan University, Santa Clara University, and the University of Indianapolis have announced fund-raising efforts.
-
- WHAT'S IN THE CARDS: Some colleges continue to use religious themes on their holiday cards, but others are choosing less traditional images to convey their season's greetings.
-
- PEER REVIEW: Henry Louis Gates Jr. turns down Princeton to stay at Harvard's Afro-American-studies department. ... Yale's provost will become the first woman to lead the University of Cambridge full time.
-
- BOND-RATING UPDATE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
NEW CHAPTER
Rather than compete with campus bookstores, the company once known as VarsityBooks.com now seeks to replace them at some colleges.
-
- IBOOKS FOR ALL:
Many colleges that once embraced Macs have diversified their on-campus computing, but Saint Leo University is bucking the trend, offering an iBook laptop to every incoming residential student and full-time faculty member.
-
- JURISDICTION DECISION: The California Supreme Court ruled that a movie-industry group cannot sue a former student who published online a code to unscramble encrypted DVD's.
-
- SCRUTINIZING VOTING: Researchers at Caltech and MIT are closely watching changes in Election Day procedures.
-
- 200 COURSES A MONTH: National University transformed its distance-learning program into a for-profit venture.
-
- NO PENCILS NECESSARY: The University of Wisconsin at Madison plans to develop online Advanced Placement courses for the state's high-school students.
-
- TO THE MEMORY HOLE? Critics at colleges say the U.S. Education Department is preparing to delete information from its Web site, in part because the material does not reflect the philosophies of the Bush administration.
STUDENTS
READING AND RIOTING
Colleges struggle to find ways to head off the worsening phenomenon of postgame rampages.
-
- FRESHMAN CHANGES: Many first-year students drink more, study a little harder, and spend far less time on volunteer work and exercise than they did in high school, according to a survey.
-
- PRIME NUMBERS: College students would support a multilateral war against Iraq but would not want to take part, a survey found.
INTERNATIONAL
ADVERTISING ARRIVES
A changing political and financial situation for European universities leads them to market themselves aggressively.
-
- WORLD BEAT: The World Bank lends $250-million to improve technical education in India. ... Librarians around the Mediterranean are starting a virtual library to safeguard the region's written heritage.
-
- BOMBS IN COLOMBIA: Police searching the National University, in Bogotá, found a variety of weapons.
-
- HAZING IN SRI LANKA: An opponent of the abuse of freshmen was killed by students who support the practice.
-
- CONCORDIA LIFTS BAN: The Canadian university lifted a campus moratorium on public gatherings related to the Middle East.
-
- RETRIAL ORDERED: Egypt's highest court overturned the conviction of a prominent Egyptian-American scholar on charges of "undermining the dignity of the state and tarnishing its reputation."
-
- PROTESTS ENDS IN PERU: A hunger strike by students and professors was halted after the government pledged $25-million to public universities.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
CONVENTION WISDOM
How one meeting participant survived semidarkness and the scheduling dead zone. By Lawrence A. Baines, associate vice president for academic affairs and director of the Center for Teacher Preparation at Mesa State College.
INTERPRETIVE NETWORKS
How will the digital revolution affect the humanities? It all depends on whether scholars can put together their digital tools and recent work on the sociology of texts, writes Jerome J. McGann, a university professor at the University of Virginia.
BEYOND 'THE BLANK SLATE'
Can we rely on sociobiology's conclusions, or do they lack scientific rigor? asks Nora S. Newcombe, a professor of psychology at Temple University.
RAWLS, REMEMBERED
A giant among philosophers of justice was also, a colleague recalls, a modest and supportive teacher, an accomplished sailor, and a devotee of oatmeal cookies. By Samuel Freeman, a professor of philosophy and law at the University of Pennsylvania.
VALUE DAYS
Studies of holidays and rituals suggest that we are what we celebrate, writes Amitai Etzioni, a university professor at George Washington University.
ACID TONGUES
Two plays posit that Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy had just enough in common to loathe one another, writes Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic.
PRINTS CHARMING
For decades, Polaroid Corporation encouraged professional artists and photographers to experiment with instant imaging. An exhibit shows some of the results.
GUIDANCE ON ADMISSIONS
Whether the Supreme Court upholds or strikes down Bakke, colleges should seize the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to diversity, writes Robert O'Neil, founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and a professor of law at the University of Virginia.
-
- MELANGE: Selections from recent books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GAZETTE
CAREER NETWORK JOB NOTICES
DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS,
including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
|
