From the issue dated April 9, 2004
THE FACULTY
RESPECTED RANKINGS ARE DELAYED
A National Research Council survey is considered the gold standard for rating American graduate programs, but a shortage of money has stalled its release until at least 2007.
ENGAGING MINDS
Great teachers aren't just fine scholars with charisma. They've invested countless hours in thinking about how their students learn best in the classroom, writes Ken Bain, an adjunct professor of history at New York University.
ENLIGHTENING TRIP
As an American achiever, Faith Adiele, an assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, had trained herself to succeed. As a Buddhist nun in Thailand, she came to appreciate the necessity of failure.
RIGHT MOVES
Political balance in the faculty can't be imposed -- but it can be fostered, writes Reed Browning, a professor of history at Kenyon College.
BEING MYSELF, ONLY BETTER
A Ph.D. can't stop second-guessing his personal and professional gaffes on the interview circuit.
THE PLIGHT OF THE NEWLY TENURED
A new associate professor finds he's no longer one of his department's smart young hires; he's one of its worker bees.
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- LARCENY CHARGES: A former Harvard instructor pleaded guilty to swindling colleagues and students out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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- CASE OF DISCRIMINATION? The U.S. Department of Education will investigate an incident at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in which an instructor sent an e-mail message to her class accusing a student of "hate speech."
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- A HILL OF BEANS: Four academics chart their caffeine consumption over a typical day.
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- DÉJÀ VU: The American Association of University Professors had to rerun another election because the ballots went out as bulk mail.
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- PEER REVIEW: A former president of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh will be the next president of Grambling State University. ... The University of Southern California has named a new dean of its Marshall School of Business. ... Several institutions have named new presidents.
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- SYLLABUS: In "Women, Plants, and Politics," at Allegheny College, an unlikely combination of subjects makes for a lively and stimulating course.
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- THIS ACADEMIC LIFE: A new report says private institutions are almost twice as likely to offer extended paid leave to parents after the birth of a child. .. A study completed by researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that even when institutions have family-friendly policies, professors do not always take advantage of them. ... A new Web site helps dual-career couples find jobs in the same area. ... The Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering has devoted a whole issue to the topic of how hard it is to raise children and have an academic career.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
CROSS-CENTURY COLLABORATION
When he died in 1926, the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí left a church in Barcelona half built. Now a New Zealand designer is using computer modeling to finish the job.
SWEAT EQUITY
An archaeologist from the University of New Hampshire leads a field school in the Guatemalan jungle for students who are reconstructing the oldest Mayan murals ever found.
PURE VALUE
For Alfred Nobel, mathematics was a tool. For Niels Abel, it was a universe. That's an approach to prize, writes Daniel Rockmore, a professor of mathematics and computer science at Dartmouth College.
A LIFE'S KNOWLEDGE
Does learning about philosophers' histories help us appreciate their work? asks Carlin Romano, critic at large for The Chronicle and literary critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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- BALANCING ACT: Scientists at London's Institute of Physics developed a formula to help women know exactly how high their heels can be without the wearer's risking a sprawl to the floor.
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- VERBATIM: Traditional and nontraditional coming-of-age rituals are explored in Debutante: Rites and Regalia of American Debdom.
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- WHO KNEW? Fewer women than men run for elected office, and the reason is that women tend to lack confidence, rather than the ability to win votes, two political scientists say. ... People are more likely to recall the details of a narrative if the ambient aroma is "hedonically congruent" with the tale, Canadian psychologists write. ... Another Canadian psychologist reported finding that cattiness in women is instinctive.
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- HOT TYPE: The ouster of Anne Fadiman as editor of The American Scholar caused a stir in publishing circles and controversy within the board of the sponsoring Phi Beta Kappa Society.
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- NOTA BENE: The perils of imperialism are made plain in the life of one person in Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai.
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- RULES RELAXATION? President Bush's bioethics council released a report that some council members said supports easing the policy on limiting federal financing for human embryonic stem-cell research.
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- YOUNG SUBJECTS: The federal government should clarify its rules for research on drugs and other therapies for children, two advisory panels recommended.
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- COURSE PACKS WITHOUT PERMISSION: Six academic publishers settled out of court with a copy-shop owner whom the publishers accused of selling course materials online.
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
BUDGETARY MUSCLEMAN
College officials say that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed spending cuts in higher education are too close to the bone.
RESPECTED RANKINGS ARE DELAYED
A National Research Council survey is considered the gold standard for rating American graduate programs, but a shortage of money has stalled its release until at least 2007.
KILLING BYTES, NOT TREES
Federal agencies will soon be required to use a common Web site for receiving grant applications.
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- OREGON SYSTEM LOSES ITS HEAD: The chancellor, Richard S. Jarvis, said he was resigning because of big changes in his job description.
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- RULES RELAXATION? President Bush's bioethics council released a report that some council members said supports easing the policy on limiting federal financing for human embryonic stem-cell research.
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- TENDENTIOUS BATTLEGROUND: Critics of affirmative action suffered setbacks in Michigan and Colorado in their efforts to prohibit racial preferences in college admissions.
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- YOUNG SUBJECTS: The federal government should clarify its rules for research on drugs and other therapies for children, two advisory panels recommended.
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- DIRECTOR ON THE DEFENSE: The head of the Veterans Health Administration's research office was accused of favoritism and mismanagement.
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- ON THE HILL: Congress started work on appropriations bills for the 2005 fiscal year last week.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
THE NEW CATHOLIC ORTHODOXY
Ave Maria University is the most ambitious of several recently founded conservative Roman Catholic institutions that strive to recreate the more-structured, insular higher education of the 1950s.
ACADEMIC IMAGE?
For the Coca-Cola Company, campus sports are a vehicle for linking their products with higher education in the minds of consumers.
REVEALING METHODS
For society to gauge the justness and legality of admissions policies, they must be transparent, write Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, and Neal Katyal, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
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- EQUAL SPLIT: Wisconsin's two medical schools will split $600-million from a foundation created when a health insurer in the state was converted to a for-profit company.
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- SCIENTIFIC PLEDGE: An American biomedical-industry entrepreneur plans to give $100-million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
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- ALL IN A NAME: Rosalind E. Franklin's photograph of DNA helped Watson and Crick win the Nobel, but she died unrecognized. Now a Chicago medical school is taking her name.
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- PEER REVIEW: A former president of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh will be the next president of Grambling State University. ... The University of Southern California has named a new dean of its Marshall School of Business. ... Several institutions have named new presidents.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
KILLING BYTES, NOT TREES
Federal agencies will soon be required to use a common Web site for receiving grant applications.
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- DATING SCREEN: A federal judge ruled that the University of Texas at Austin can block messages from an online courtship service.
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- CHALLENGING COPYRIGHT LAW: A prominent legal scholar sued in federal court to try to get old books and films placed in Internet archives.
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- SOFTWARE LAWSUIT: Cleveland State University sued PeopleSoft and a consulting firm for fraud and breach of contract.
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- FIGHTING MUSIC PIRACY: Many colleges have no comprehensive policies to combat music piracy on their campuses, according to a new report.
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- LEGAL ACTIONS IN 4 COUNTRIES: A federation of record-industry groups around the world sued 247 people it accuses of illegally trading copyrighted music.
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- COURSE PACKS WITHOUT PERMISSION: Six academic publishers settled out of court with a copy-shop owner whom the publishers accused of selling course materials online.
STUDENTS
MAKE NOISE NICELY
Colleges want fans to cheer for the team, not swear at opponents. How can they achieve that without violating the First Amendment?
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- DEVIOUS MEASURES: Students who borrow bicycles from Eckerd College do what they must to ensure they have a ride home from class.
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- DIAGNOSED WITH THE FLU: An appeals-court panel in Massachusetts overturned a jury's $4-million award to the parents of a Northeastern University student whose death resulted, they charged, from the campus health clinic's failure to diagnose her leukemia in 1993.
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- ANTITRUST SUIT: Students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison charged that local bars engaged in price fixing after they simultaneously ended discounted drink specials.
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- DUES AND DON'TS: The University of Montana's governing board voted that student groups may not collect fees through the university.
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- FACT FILE: A table shows 103 colleges' enrollments of freshman Merit Scholars for the past two years.
ATHLETICS
SILVER LINING
Its loss in the NCAA's men's basketball tournament was painful for Saint Joseph's University, but the benefits of the surprisingly successful season may be felt on the campus for years.
ACADEMIC IMAGE?
For the Coca-Cola Company, campus sports are a vehicle for linking their products with higher education in the minds of consumers.
MAKE NOISE NICELY
Colleges want fans to cheer for the team, not swear at opponents. How can they achieve that without violating the First Amendment?
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- REAL DATA, PLEASE: The National Collegiate Athletic Association asked the U.S. Department of Education to change its requirements for colleges so that legally required reports on gender equity in athletics programs can be independently audited and the data made comparable from one institution to the next.
INTERNATIONAL
SWEAT EQUITY
An archaeologist from the University of New Hampshire leads a field school in the Guatemalan jungle for students who are reconstructing the oldest Mayan murals ever found.
ENLIGHTENING TRIP
As an American achiever, Faith Adiele, an assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, had trained herself to succeed. As a Buddhist nun in Thailand, she came to appreciate the necessity of failure.
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- SCHEDULE CHANGE: The British House of Commons approved a bill that would allow colleges in England and Wales to charge higher tuition.
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- NEED-BASED AID IN CANADA: The government is raising the ceiling on student loans and starting its first grant programs for low-income students and those with disabilities.
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- REFUSAL TO PLAY POLITICS: The European organizers of a scientific conference in Morocco canceled the gathering after learning that three Israeli registrants were unwelcome.
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- 'AGONIZING DECISION': A university in a Tokyo suburb revoked its offer of admission to a woman whose father led the sect responsible for a deadly poison-gas attack on the city's subway system.
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- 300 SIGNATORIES: Israel's academic leaders should take a public stand against their government's attitude toward academic freedom at Palestinian universities, says an open letter posted online by several scholars.
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- TRAPPINGS OF MEDICINE: Veterinarians at the University of Prince Edward Island are putting a lot of effort into research on keeping lobsters healthy.
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- BALANCING ACT: Scientists at London's Institute of Physics developed a formula to help women know exactly how high their heels can be without the wearer's risking a sprawl to the floor.
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- SCIENTIFIC PLEDGE: An American biomedical-industry entrepreneur plans to give $100-million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
NOTES FROM ACADEME
SWEAT EQUITY
An archaeologist from the University of New Hampshire leads a field school in the Guatemalan jungle for students who are reconstructing the oldest Mayan murals ever found.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
PURE VALUE
For Alfred Nobel, mathematics was a tool. For Niels Abel, it was a universe. That's an approach to prize, writes Daniel Rockmore, a professor of mathematics and computer science at Dartmouth College.
ENGAGING MINDS
Great teachers aren't just fine scholars with charisma. They've invested countless hours in thinking about how their students learn best in the classroom, writes Ken Bain, an adjunct professor of history at New York University.
ENLIGHTENING TRIP
As an American achiever, Faith Adiele, an assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, had trained herself to succeed. As a Buddhist nun in Thailand, she came to appreciate the necessity of failure.
A LIFE'S KNOWLEDGE
Does learning about philosophers' histories help us appreciate their work? asks Carlin Romano, critic at large for The Chronicle and literary critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
RIGHT MOVES
Political balance in the faculty can't be imposed -- but it can be fostered, writes Reed Browning, a professor of history at Kenyon College.
TUTU MUCH
For an evening of pointed comedy, try the ballet, writes Martha Ullman West, a dance writer in Portland, Ore., and a senior advisory editor at Dance magazine.
A MOMENT'S TRUTH
The photographer Jerome Liebling impressed on his Hampshire College students the art of artlessness.
REVEALING METHODS
For society to gauge the justness and legality of admissions policies, they must be transparent, write Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, and Neal Katyal, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
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- MELANGE: Selections from recent books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CHRONICLE CAREERS
BEING MYSELF, ONLY BETTER
A Ph.D. can't stop second-guessing his personal and professional gaffes on the interview circuit.
THE PLIGHT OF THE NEWLY TENURED
A new associate professor finds he's no longer one of his department's smart young hires; he's one of its worker bees.
THOSE ROTTEN YOUNG PEOPLE
It is tiresome to be patronized or tuned out because of one's age.
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- ACADEMIC JOB FORUM: A discussion forum on the job search in higher education.
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- DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
GAZETTE
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