A Guide to the February 17, 1995, Issue
of The Chronicle of Higher Education
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
RESEARCHERS QUESTION THE CONCEPT OF RACE
Many scholars now believe that widely used racial categories
are meaningless and unscientific. At its meeting next week, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science will weigh
whether race is even a legitimate subject of study: Page A8
LESSONS FROM PREHISTORIC AGRICULTURE
Clark L. Erickson, a University of Pennsylvania archaeologist,
is working to re-establish raised-field cultivation in Bolivia,
where the technique flourished in ancient times: Page A10
JEWS AND THE SLAVE TRADE
The American Historical Association has adopted a declaration
condemning assertions that Jews played a "disproportionate
role" in the slave trade or in exploiting slave labor: Page A15
STUDYING FAMINE AND STARVATION
Robert Dirks, an anthropologist at Illinois State University,
focuses his research on the social breakdowns that take place
as severe food shortages set in: Page A7
- FLOYD E. BLOOM, a neuroscientist at the Scripps Research
Institute in La Jolla, Cal., was named the new editor of
Science magazine by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the magazine's publisher: A8
- PSYCHOLOGISTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA at Riverside
have gathered information for three years on 184 students
for a study of how people assess personality: A8
- 109 NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS, briefly described: A11
- Nota Bene: Subversive Words: Public Opinion in
Eighteenth-Century France, by Arlette Farge, of the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.
The book is published by Penn State University Press.
- HOT TYPE: A12
- Is poetry living or dying? The University of Missouri
Press just suspended its publication of poetry, but the
University of Pittsburgh Press's poetry series recently
celebrated its 25th anniversary. A survey under way by the
Association of American University Presses may give some
answers.
- ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the
Environment, a year-old journal published by Indiana
University of Pennsylvania, takes up "ecocriticism and
institutionalization" in its new volume.
- Michael Branch, an assistant professor of English at
Florida International University and a writer in the
current ISLE, has also contributed to the growing
literature on nature writing.
PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL CONCERNS
A MERGER OF UNIONS MISFIRES
The abrupt end of discussions between the American Federation
of Teachers and the National Education Association has
mystified many campus officials: Page A17
JUDGE REJECTS CHARGE OF ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS
A federal magistrate has ruled against Donald G. Schley, a
professor who claimed he had been denied a tenure-track job at
the College of Charleston because he is a devout Christian:
Page A18
NO LEGAL HELP FOR A PROFESSOR
The State of Utah has refused to provide assistance to David C.
Raskin, a psychology professor at the University of Utah who
was sued for defamation after he questioned the competence and
qualifications of a Salt Lake City psychologist: Page A20
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
THE TECHNOLOGY OF SINGING
A center at Oberlin College's Conservatory of Music uses
sophisticated computers to analyze and improve the performance
of its students of voice: Page A21
- THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS CHARGED a University of Michigan
student with threatening a fellow student, after he posted
on an electronic bulletin board what he said was a fictional
account of her torture: A21
- THE EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE HAS DELAYED, from 1997 to
1999, its plan to switch entirely from paper-and-pencil to
computerized versions of the Graduate Record Examinations
General Test: A21
- FOUR NEW COMPUTER PROGRAMS, one new optical disc: A23
FEDERAL & STATE GOVERNMENTS (U.S.A.)
THE CLINTON BUDGET FOR FISCAL 1996
The President wants to spend more money on Pell Grants and some
science agencies, but would hold down spending on academic
research: Page A28
- The budget at a glance and in detail: facts and figures on
what President Clinton has proposed spending on colleges,
students, and scientific research in 1996: Pages A30-31
- A list of higher-education programs the Clinton budget
would eliminate, and the programs' current appropriations:
Page A33
- Many small education programs would be eliminated in order
to pay for larger Pell Grants for students: Page A28
- Overall support for research would remain flat, but
increases are proposed for the National Science Foundation
and the National Institutes of Health: Page A28
- The Administration has proposed narrowing the authority of
state review boards, known as SPRE's, that were created by
the Higher Education Act of 1992: Page A32
- The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities would
get $5-million increases, but Congress may not even
reauthorize their existence: Page A33
CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT RESEARCH ON AIDS?
In an article in Science magazine, William E. Paul, the head
of the federal government's AIDS-research program, proposed a
shift in its focus, from clinical to basic research: Page A34
- VIRGINIA'S USUALLY COURTLY GENERAL ASSEMBLY has doffed its
gloves and moved to kill many of the budget cuts to colleges
proposed by Gov. George F. Allen: A28
- THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOLARS, a conservative group,
has called for a dramatic scaling back of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, but has not asked that it be
eliminated outright: A28
- THE GOVERNOR OF HAWAII HAS ORDERED a $35-million cut in the
University of Hawaii System's budget -- a move that could
result in a tuition increase: A35
- A STATE-COURT DECISION HAS ALLOWED out-of-state students at
the University of Florida to qualify more easily as state
residents, a classification that would cut their annual
tuition payments by more than $5,000 each: A35
- MICHIGAN'S PREPAID-TUITION PROGRAM won another victory over
the Internal Revenue Service when a federal court declined
to reconsider a ruling that bars the I.R.S. from collecting
income taxes on the program's investments: A35
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS of historians mobilized last week to
oppose the expected nomination by President Clinton of John
W. Carlin, a dairy farmer and former Governor of Kansas, to
be Archivist of the United States: A36
- HIGH SCHOOLS SHOULD OFFER COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS to students
who master their courses and graduate from high school
early, House Speaker Newt Gingrich told a meeting of the
National School Boards Association last week: A36
BUSINESS & PHILANTHROPY
LOWER TOTAL RETURNS ON ENDOWMENTS
Colleges and universities earned an average of 2.9 per cent in
fiscal 1994, according to a report by the National Association
of College and University Business Officers: Page A24
- Fact File: 446 college and university endowments, with
their market values in 1993 and 1994: Pages A25-26
A THEATER BATTLES ITS UNIVERSITY
The directors of Roosevelt University's Auditorium Theatre
Council have gone to court to prevent the use of the theater's
assets to pay for a new campus for the university: Page A27
- KEAN COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY hired a consulting firm to help
it recover from an incendiary speech by a Nation of Islam
spokesman, but the firm's report has further inflamed the
campus: A7
- A PIANIST IS THANKING A SURGEON who saved her life in an
unusual way. She will give a concert to raise money for a
professorship in his honor at the Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons: A24
- THE NEW PRESIDENT OF BEN & JERRY'S HOMEMADE, the offbeat
company that makes an extremely rich ice cream, also happens
to be the chairman of the Spelman College trustees: A24
- A BALTIMORE COURT WILL DECIDE whether the Maryland Institute
College of Art can sell an art collection that has been on
loan to two Baltimore museums for decades: A27
- TWO TRUSTEES OF LIBERTY UNIVERSITY have given the
institution a special gift: They've forgiven a big part of
the $80-million debt that once threatened its existence: A27
- THE USA GROUP, the largest student-loan-servicing company in
the country, is acquiring the $1.4-billion loan portfolio of
Education Loan Services, an arm of Nellie Mae: A27
- EIGHT FOUNDATION GRANTS; six gifts and bequests: A27
STUDENTS
MINORITY STUDENTS AND THE MUSEUM WORLD
A program at the Atlanta History Center prepares black
undergraduates for careers in museums and other cultural
institutions: Page A37
SUSPICIONS AT A STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Editors of The Spectator, at the Mississippi University for
Women, charge that administrators are behind several incidents
that have hampered the paper's recent operation: Page A38
COLLEGE ENROLLMENTS TO RISE SLOWLY
A Fact File based on figures from the U.S. Department of
Education projects that, between 1994 and 2005, the number of
high-school graduates, college and graduate students, and
degrees granted will increase only marginally: Page A38
ATHLETICS
OUTSIDE THE BIG TIME
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which
represents athletics programs at small colleges, has lost
members in recent years, and some officials say the group may
be in worse shape than it acknowledges: Page A39
- CONGRESS IS EXPECTED TO ENTER THE FRAY over how Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972 is enforced in college
sports programs. The law mandates equal treatment of men and
women at institutions that receive federal aid: A38
- THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION has proposed rules to
enforce the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, which
requires institutions receiving federal aid to make public
the revenues and expenses of their athletics programs: A38
- FIVE MEMBERS of the seven-school Metropolitan Collegiate
Athletic Conference have agreed to buy out the memberships
of its two Virginia institutions for $2.3-million: A38
- MERRILY DEAN BAKER, who last year gave up direct control of
Michigan State University's three revenue-producing sports,
has resigned as the institution's athletics director: A40
- A MINNESOTA COURT HAS BARRED the University of Minnesota at
Twin Cities from replacing its ousted coach of women's
volleyball, pending an investigation by the state's
Department of Human Rights: A40
INTERNATIONAL
DEFENDING ACADEMIC EXCHANGES
Officials of international-education programs and associations
are mobilizing for the biggest battle over funds they have
faced in years. Some in Congress have called for the end of two
agencies that allot most federal funds in this area: Page A41
SUPPORTING HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA
At the biennial meeting of the Association of African
Universities last month, leaders of the institutions called for
the creation of a broad alliance to promote and protect higher
education on the continent: Page A43
OPINION & LETTERS
DO NOT ABANDON THE HISTORY STANDARDS
Diane Ravitch, a senior scholar at New York University and at
the Brookings Institution, writes that the proposed standards
for teaching American history are deeply flawed, but they
should be revised, not killed: Page A52
CURRICULAR INCOHERENCE ON THE CAMPUS
Overlaps of courses and duplication among programs are
educationally dubious and financially inexcusable, according to
Gerald Graff, a professor of English and education at the
University of Chicago, and Michael Berube, an associate
professor of English at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign: Page B1
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE ARTS
THE ROLE OF PRINTMAKING IN SOUTH AFRICA
"States of Contrast: Works by Contemporary South African
Printmakers," an exhibit on concurrent display at Pennsylvania
State University and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee,
shows the vitality of a medium that in South Africa is used
much more for social commentary than in the United States:
Page B68
A HIGHER-EDUCATION GAZETTE: PAGES A44-51
- 73 APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS on U.S. campuses: A44-45
- DEATHS of 26 people in academe: A45
- 184 COMING EVENTS of interest to the men and women of
academe: A45-48
- 91 DEADLINES -- for fellowships, grants, institutes,
workshops, and the submission of papers: A50-51