Academe Today: Chronicle Archives

A Guide to the April 12, 1996, Issue
of The Chronicle of Higher Education

Items relevant to more than one category may appear more than once in this guide. To read the complete text of the article, click on the highlighted words.

INTERNATIONAL

IN NEW ZEALAND, A PUSH FOR BICULTURALISM
At the University of Waikato, tribal customs of the native Maori people are reshaping the Western-style academic environment.

IN UKRAINE, AN EDUCATIONAL MILESTONE
Solomon International University, the country's first Jewish institution of higher education, has ambitious plans to revive Judaic culture in the region.

IN THE WEST BANK, TWO CRACKDOWNS
Hundreds of Palestinian students were arrested by Israeli troops and Palestinian police in raids at universities.

IN CHINA, the government has announced plans to collect tuition from all college students.
IN BRITAIN, the Oxford and Cambridge University Club will elect, for the first time, a woman to full membership.

RESEARCH & PUBLISHING

STOPPING THE SPREAD OF AIDS
North American researchers hope their work in Thailand will lead to the first large-scale test of a vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus.

BEFORE "THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE"
Daniel Horowitz, a professor of American studies at Smith College, has stirred debate with a paper exploring the roots of Betty Friedan's support for women's rights.

TEACHING HISTORY
A revised version of proposed national standards for elementary and secondary schools was released last week, satisfying many of the critics who had blasted an earlier draft.

TENEMENTS AND PUBS
Kevin C. Kearns, a professor of social history and cultural geography at the University of Northern Colorado, is using the oral histories of Dubliners to describe the city's past.

A BLOW TO ACADEMIC PUBLISHING
Cambridge University Press's decision not to publish a book about Greek Macedonia further erodes the shaky foundations of scholarly freedom, write Stephen Gudeman of the University of Minnesota and Michael Herzfeld of Harvard University.

MARY LEFKOWITZ AND MARTIN BERNAL, two scholars on opposite sides of the debate over ancient Egypt's influence on classical Greece, will face off on the Internet.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY'S NEMMERS PRIZES for 1995-96 have been awarded to a mathematician and an economist.
HOT TYPE
- For the first time in 68 years, the journal American Literature is devoting an issue to contemporary writing.
- Two new books take issue with the idea that talk shows are "trashfests" that demean guests and viewers.
89 NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS, briefly described.
- Nota Bene: Opera: Desire, Disease, Death, by Linda and Michael Hutcheon, both of the University of Toronto. The book is published by the University of Nebraska Press.

PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL CONCERNS

ROCHESTER GRANTS MATH A REPRIEVE
Professors and administrators worked out a compromise to save the university's graduate program in mathematics from elimination. The deal has satisfied both sides.

WHAT PROFESSORS EARN
An annual survey by the American Association of University Professors has found that the average salary of faculty members passed $50,000 this year, modestly outpacing the rate of inflation.

A list of average faculty salaries by academic rank at more than 1,800 institutions in 1995-96.

JOHN SILBER CHANGES JOBS
After more than 25 years as president of Boston University, the controversial leader will take a new position, as B.U.'s chancellor.

A BREAK IN THE UNABOMBER CASE
Federal agents last week arrested Theodore J. Kaczynski, a Harvard graduate and former assistant professor at Berkeley, who they say may be responsible for the string of terrorist explosions.

THE PRESIDENT OF WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, David Adamany, wants sections of introductory courses to use common books and syllabi; some professors object to the idea.
STUDENTS AT DUKE UNIVERSITY have rallied in support of an engineering professor who was denied tenure.
THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON'S PRESIDENT, Peggy Gordon Elliott, resigned last week, after the Ohio Attorney General released a report that accused her of violating hiring policies.
TEACHERS' COLLEGES SHOULD MAKE a bigger commitment to training teachers' aides to serve in the classroom, a new study says.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

THREE DIMENSIONS
A laser device at the San Diego Supercomputer Center turns data into detailed, useful models that researchers can hold in their hands.

A COURT IN PHILADELPHIA is hearing arguments on the constitutionality of the new law that restricts "indecent" material on the Internet.
A STUDENT IN ARGENTINA has been charged by the U.S. Justice Department with breaking into American computers.
A LIBRARIAN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA at Berkeley is building an on-line archive of architecture slides.
A LIBRARY PROJECT on Virginia's history includes an electronic "card" catalogue.
NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY students have designed computerized, three-dimensional images of cyberspace.
PROFESSORS ON AN INTERNET MAILING LIST have been debating the best way to mark papers submitted electronically.
MARY LEFKOWITZ AND MARTIN BERNAL, two scholars on opposite sides of the debate over ancient Egypt's influence on classical Greece, will face off on the Internet.
FOUR SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, seven videos, and eight other Internet resources.

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

DEBATE OVER A DUAL CAREER
George G. Kirkpatrick, the chairman of the Florida Senate's Higher Education Committee, maintains that his work for a private-college group is not a conflict of interest.

ROUGH DAYS FOR REMEDIAL STUDIES
Colleges are afraid that Republicans in Congress will eliminate financial aid for students who take remedial courses.

Critics say that proposed changes in the Higher Education Act could limit access to college for the country's neediest students.

"IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION," an art exhibit at Northern Kentucky University, has angered state legislators.
THE TENNESSEE SENATE has killed a bill that would have forced schoolteachers and professors in the state to teach evolution as theory rather than fact.
GOV. BILL GRAVES of Kansas signed a law last week that for the first time establishes admissions standards at state universities.
NEW YORK CITY OFFICIALS may toughen grade requirements for impoverished students on "home relief" who want to receive "workfare" payments.
THE MINNESOTA STATE COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY SYSTEM will lay off 553 technical-college faculty members.
OKLAHOMA VOTERS DEFEATED a ballot measure that would have limited state funds for higher education.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER suspended a government-sponsored medical-research project last week, after the death of a student who was a test subject.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING last week voted no confidence in its new president, Harold Liebowitz.
CONGRESS PASSED, and President Clinton is expected to sign, a farm bill that authorizes at least $100-million for research and education in rural areas.
THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE'S Office of Research Integrity last week found a neurology professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison guilty of scientific misconduct.
FIVE NEW BILLS IN CONGRESS.

BUSINESS & PHILANTHROPY

TURNING TO PRAYER
Students and professors at Selma University hope that their daily vigils will restore the historically black institution to financial health.

UNIVERSITY FINANCE 101
A class at Haverford College divulges some of the institution's secrets as it teaches the economics of higher education.

A TUSCAN WUTHERING HEIGHTS
New York University wants to transform a faded Florentine villa it was given into a center for international activities.

THE COUNCIL FOR ADVANCEMENT AND SUPPORT OF EDUCATION has issued new guidelines on how fund raisers should report gifts.
THE BELLSOUTH FOUNDATION wants more of its grants to benefit secondary schools.
TONY DEW, the associate dean of student affairs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, hopes to raise money for scholarships by running in the Boston Marathon.

STUDENTS

UNIVERSITY FINANCE 101
A class at Haverford College divulges some of the institution's secrets as it teaches the economics of higher education.

ROUGH DAYS FOR REMEDIAL STUDIES
Colleges are afraid that Republicans in Congress will eliminate financial aid for students who take remedial courses.

Critics say that proposed changes in the Higher Education Act could limit access to college for the country's neediest students.

AN APRIL FOOL'S ISSUE of the student newspaper at the University of Minnesota at Duluth offended many readers.
TEACHERS' COLLEGES SHOULD MAKE a bigger commitment to training teachers' aides to serve in the classroom, a new study says.
RACE RELATIONS AT EMORY UNIVERSITY have deteriorated in the wake of a fight between two freshmen.
FOUR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS hope their hunger strike will pressure the institution to establish an ethnic-studies department.
AN ART PROJECT involving mice may lead to charges of animal cruelty against a student at the University of Florida.
A FORMER STUDENT at California State University at Fullerton has settled a case in which he had sued a professor for allegedly spanking him.
AN ECONOMICS STUDENT at Northeastern University has invented special shock absorbers to give in-line skaters a smoother ride.
BERRY COLLEGE STUDENTS are keeping alive the campus tradition of weaving.
MEMBERS OF THE VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHORUS have won a national gospel-choir contest.
A NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE SENIOR is being investigated for a bomb that exploded in his dormitory room.
NEW YORK CITY OFFICIALS may toughen grade requirements for impoverished students on "home relief" who want to receive "workfare" payments.

ATHLETICS

A NEW APPROACH TO CORE COURSES
High schools want the National Collegiate Athletic Association to bring freshman-eligibility rules in line with new curricula offered at the nation's secondary schools.

A COURT IN ILLINOIS has denied the state's high-school association the exclusive rights to "March Madness," a term the National Collegiate Athletic Association uses.
A FORMER FOOTBALL COACH at the University of Houston has accepted $650,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed after being fired, he said, for reporting rules violations.

OPINION & LETTERS

THE APOLITICAL PROFESSORIATE
American academics have politicized scholarly debate but seem to have little interest in real politics, argues Russell Jacoby, an adjunct professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles.

PUTTING AN END TO STUDENTS' EMPTY SPECULATION
Undergraduates must be taught concrete facts before they will be able to engage in meaningful abstraction, says Herbert I. London, a professor of humanities at New York University.

MARGINALIA.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE ARTS

A MECCA FOR JANEITES
Goucher College possesses one of the largest collections of materials by and about Jane Austen.

DEADLY WEAPONS AS ART
Works that depict guns are on display at the University of California at Riverside through June 2.

"IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION," an art exhibit at Northern Kentucky University, has angered state legislators.
AN ART PROJECT involving mice may lead to charges of animal cruelty against a student at the University of Florida.

A Guide to the April 12, 1996, Issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education