From the issue dated September 12, 2003
THE FACULTY
THE PRICE OF MURDER
A professor finds that he cannot escape his criminal past.
- CHECKING UP: Colleges check the backgrounds of prospective security guards and janitors more often than they do those of faculty members.
HUMBLE PIE
False modesty can be better than immodesty. But true modesty is something all academics can be proud of. Oops, writes William Ian Miller, a professor of law at the University of Michigan.
SEEK WITHIN
Sometimes the best faculty candidates are your own students, writes Gerald Monk, director of the school-counseling program and a professor of school counseling at San Diego State University.
POLITE TO A FAULT
Liberal-arts educators have been so accommodating to preprofessional goals that they might just accommodate themselves out of existence, writes Marshall Gregory, a professor of English, liberal education, and pedagogy at Butler University.
THE CLUELESS AND THE UNCARING
Ms. Mentor observes that many academics feel victimized in the autumn by obtuse regents, dastardly deans, and other miscreants.
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
A successful academic career depends on how well you toot your own horn.
-
- PEER REVIEW: The chairman of the black-studies department at Indiana University is ousted over the objections of several professors. ... A Pulitzer Prize-winning author says he won't teach again at Emory until harassment charges against him are dropped.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
NO STRAIGHT PATH
As the field of gay history merges with mainstream scholarship, it is beginning to make some history of its own.
IN SEARCH OF A NICHE
The for-profit online library Questia, having failed to compete with college libraries, has scaled back.
MESTIZAJE STATES OF AMERICA
Governmental race classifications aside, you're as Chinese as you feel, writes Richard Rodriguez, an editor at Pacific News Service and an essayist for PBS's News Hour.
-
- OH, THE HUMANITIES! Graduates in those fields die young, according to a study conducted at the University of Glasgow.
-
- VERBATIM: David Cole, a professor of law at Georgetown University, talks about terrorism, civil liberties, and immigration law.
-
- HOT TYPE: The prominent cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek, not happy with his publishing arrangement at Verso, has started a new series at MIT Press.
-
- NOTA BENE: In Who Owns Native Culture, Michael F. Brown uses case studies from around the world to explore ways to balance indigenous and wider interests.
-
- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
FEELING THE PINCH
Big tuition increases have prepaid plans on the ropes, though other state-sponsored college-savings plans are booming.
-
- STEPPING DOWN: Jeffrey R. Andrade, a top official at the Education Department, steps down.
-
- STEPPING IT UP: William M. Bulger, the controversial former president of the University of Massachusetts system, wants a bigger pension.
-
- ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES: The rising cost of college is a "crisis," and state budgets are not to blame, says a report by Congressional Republicans.
-
- FEDERAL LOAN LIMITS: An unusual coalition of colleges and lenders lobbies for an increase in federal-loan limits.
-
- FINES FROM THE FEDS: Well-known colleges are among the 470 institutions that did not complete the U.S. Education Department's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System survey last year.
-
- FAKING IT: A former graduate student was sentenced to prison for fabricating research and then staging a theft in a cover-up.
-
- CLOSING THE DOORS: The University of Miami is laying off the staff of a center that focuses on the Americas, citing a sharp drop in federal support.
-
- LET US NOT PRAY: Dinner prayers at a state military college cannot continue, as a federal appeals court declined to review a lower-court ruling against the practice.
-
- ADMISSIONS LAWSUIT: Seven Virginia public colleges that have rejected illegal immigrants for admission are violating the U.S. Constitution, according to a lawsuit.
-
- KEEPING HOPE ALIVE: The Georgia Lottery may not generate enough money to pay for the state's popular HOPE scholarship program in three years.
-
- LOS ALAMOS SETTLEMENT: The University of California paid nearly $1-million to resolve the complaint of a whistle-blower at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
-
- AUTONOMY, BUT AT A PRICE: Florida's 11 public universities are replacing financial systems, thanks to a new state law giving the institutions fiscal independence.
-
- AGAINST EXCLUSIVITY: NCAA President Myles Brand and others testified before Congress about which football teams should get invited to the Bowl Championship Series.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Fewer than 70 private liberal-arts junior colleges remain, of the hundreds that once existed. Some have merged. Some have shut down. And many have switched to four-year status.
NEW AGE UNIVERSITY
At Atlantic University, some 400 students study the "fundamental oneness to all of life and the universe itself."
NURTURING LEADERSHIP
Student trustees provide invaluable perspectives, but more attention should be paid to their training, writes Kimberly C. Lang, a former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Anne Arundel Community College.
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS AND THE PRESS
Whether the two have a good relationship depends, in large measure, on the president.
THE CLUELESS AND THE UNCARING
Ms. Mentor observes that many academics feel victimized in the autumn by obtuse regents, dastardly deans, and other miscreants.
-
- HIT THE ROAD: Sequoia Capital, a top-tier venture fund, told the University of California to take its endowment elsewhere.
-
- SHUT DOWN: A controversial study center in the Middle East that drew protests from Harvard students has closed.
-
- LOS ALAMOS SETTLEMENT: The University of California paid nearly $1-million to resolve the complaint of a whistle-blower at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
-
- PEER REVIEW: The chairman of the black-studies department at Indiana University is ousted over the objections of several professors. ... A Pulitzer Prize-winning author says he won't teach again at Emory until harassment charges against him are dropped.
-
- BOND-RATING UPDATE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
IN SEARCH OF A NICHE
The for-profit online library Questia, having failed to compete with college libraries, has scaled back.
-
- CUMULUS CRAFTER: A program developed by a computer engineer and a student at Purdue helps designers create clouds, which are more complex than you might think.
-
- PRODUCTIVE SUMMER: IBM summer interns included computer-science students and M.B.A. students who teamed up to create software.
-
- AUTONOMY, BUT AT A PRICE: Florida's 11 public universities are replacing financial systems, thanks to a new state law giving the institutions fiscal independence.
-
- GEARING UP TO SUE: The Recording Industry Association of America will start filing lawsuits this month against college students to stop them from pirating music online.
STUDENTS
FLUFFY GOES TO COLLEGE
Having a pet on the campus can be fun. Or it can more than the owner bargained for.
- CRUELTY 101: Animal-rights leaders point to a number of crimes against animals by fraternity members, and they want colleges to do something about it.
WHEN STUDY IS THE STAR
Undergraduate research projects celebrate persistence, integrity, and scholarly culture. Why don't more colleges encourage them? asks David W. Chapman, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Samford University.
NURTURING LEADERSHIP
Student trustees provide invaluable perspectives, but more attention should be paid to their training, writes Kimberly C. Lang, a former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Anne Arundel Community College.
-
- LIFE AT THE ACADEMY: Almost a quarter of the female cadets who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy this year were sexually assaulted there, according to a survey.
-
- OFF-CAMPUS HAUNTS: Profiles of three beloved cafes and bars where college students are regulars.
-
- AROUSING INTEREST: Two Hillel members on a California campus are distributing condoms that bear a double-entendre slogan to draw attention to Israel.
-
- MIND-SET GAP: Beloit College issued its annual listing of how new freshmen's view of the world might differ from that of their professors'.
-
- ASPIRING TEENAGERS: American high-school students increasingly see the importance of having a college degree, according to a new survey.
ATHLETICS
A RUN ON DIPLOMAS
Athletes who entered college in 1996, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association raised academic standards, graduated at higher rates than ever, but at a cost to the number of black athletes.
-
- ANTITRUST VIOLATION? A court ruled that the NCAA had unfairly limited the ability of preseason college-basketball promoters to create tournaments.
-
- AGAINST EXCLUSIVITY: NCAA President Myles Brand and others testified before Congress about which football teams should get invited to the Bowl Championship Series.
INTERNATIONAL
IRAQ'S UNIVERSITIES
Most students finished the academic year despite the war. But nobody knows what will happen next.
- EQUALITY, NOT PRIVILEGE: The University of the Two Rivers, formerly Saddam University, will now be treated like all others.
- WARY OF INTEGRATION: Kurdish universities in northern Iraq have prospered under autonomy. Now officials are worried about an Iraqi plan to bring in Arab students.
-
- ACADEMICS DISPUTE REPORT: Historians and archaeologists in India criticized a government report on the excavation of a disputed religious site.
-
- MORE SEATS NEEDED: Mexican students who were refused admission to a public university blocked a highway to protest the government's failure to meet the demand for higher education.
-
- WORLD BEAT: Arcadia University, faced with a housing shortage, sent some of its new students to London. ... An Iranian novelist will be Brown University's first International Writing Project Fellow.
NOTES FROM ACADEME
NEW AGE UNIVERSITY
At Atlantic University, some 400 students study the "fundamental oneness to all of life and the universe itself."
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
WHEN STUDY IS THE STAR
Undergraduate research projects celebrate persistence, integrity, and scholarly culture. Why don't more colleges encourage them? asks David W. Chapman, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Samford University.
HUMBLE PIE
False modesty can be better than immodesty. But true modesty is something all academics can be proud of. Oops, writes William Ian Miller, a professor of law at the University of Michigan.
MESTIZAJE STATES OF AMERICA
Governmental race classifications aside, you're as Chinese as you feel, writes Richard Rodriguez, an editor at Pacific News Service and an essayist for PBS's News Hour.
NURTURING LEADERSHIP
Student trustees provide invaluable perspectives, but more attention should be paid to their training, writes Kimberly C. Lang, a former vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Anne Arundel Community College.
SEEK WITHIN
Sometimes the best faculty candidates are your own students, writes Gerald Monk, director of the school-counseling program and a professor of school counseling at San Diego State University.
LOOK BACK IN INGRES
The painter Grace Hartigan won't let sleeping artists lie.
POLITE TO A FAULT
Liberal-arts educators have been so accommodating to preprofessional goals that they might just accommodate themselves out of existence, writes Marshall Gregory, a professor of English, liberal education, and pedagogy at Butler University.
-
- MELANGE: Selections from recent books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CAREER NETWORK
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS AND THE PRESS
Whether the two have a good relationship depends, in large measure, on the president.
THE CLUELESS AND THE UNCARING
Ms. Mentor observes that many academics feel victimized in the autumn by obtuse regents, dastardly deans, and other miscreants.
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
A successful academic career depends on how well you toot your own horn.
-
- ACADEMIC JOB FORUM: A discussion forum on the job search in higher education.
-
- DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
GAZETTE
|
