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From the issue dated February 9, 2007 |
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Short SubjectsTHE 'SQUIRREL GUY'Joel S. Brown finds the perfect evolutionary-biology laboratory in his backyard. RENEGADE ECONOMISTS: The American Economic Association has disavowed a group that has claimed for six decades to be its offspring. PORTRAIT OF THE DONOR AS A WOOD MAN: The University of Missouri at Columbia honors a donor with a wooden mosaic likeness. A TALK WITH SPOCK: The departing president of Wright State University enjoyed a surprise visit and Vulcan mind-meld with the actor Leonard Nimoy at a retirement party. BAD VIBRATIONS: Researchers at the University of Salford staged a yearlong online experiment to determine the worst sound in the world. The results are nauseating. The FacultyA NEW FORMULA FOR TEACHINGA Nobel Prize winner in physics takes charge of reforming undergraduate science education at the University of British Columbia. SHH. HELP'S ON THE WAY.At Hanover College, an "early-alert team" of administrators and faculty members tries to stay behind the scenes as it helps students stay on course. THE COOKIE CRUMBLESA professor's use of software to protect his privacy as he surfs the Web does not go unnoticed. Paul Cesarini, an assistant professor of visual communication and technology education at Bowling Green State University, describes his experience. SENSE OF HUMOR PREFERREDTelling a joke in a job interview is almost always a mistake, but that's not the only way candidates can show they are funny. CRAFTING A TEACHING PERSONAThe choices you make as a faculty member — and not just in the classroom — will affect the face you present to students. CUNY CLAMPS DOWN: To the dismay of some professors, the trustees of the City University of New York have established a procedure for handling students' allegations of faculty misconduct. FIRED, REHIRED, RESIGNED: Virginia State University has agreed to pay a $600,000 settlement to a professor who was fired. SYLLABUS: A statistics course at Carnegie Mellon University focuses on studies of the gay and lesbian population. PEER REVIEW: A renowned scholar of urban anthropology and public health is moving from the West Coast to the University of Pennsylvania. ... Politicians from both sides accept positions in academe. ... Yale appoints its first female chair of the physics department. Research & BooksTHE SCHOLARS' DRILLA book about John Henry — the song, the legend, and a man who may have inspired them — has renewed debate among researchers about that mainstay of American folklore. A NEW FORMULA FOR TEACHINGA Nobel Prize winner in physics takes charge of reforming undergraduate science education at the University of British Columbia. ON THE RECORD, ALL THE TIMETechnology scholars and commercial researchers eagerly promote a "lifelogged" future in which we will make near-complete records of our daily lives with video cameras, audio recorders, and other tools. READ SLOWLYIn our information age, we have forgotten that literature is not just data, and that every work has its own pace, writes Lindsay Waters, an executive editor for the humanities at Harvard University Press. QUIET STORM: The University of California has sued the family of the late Jacques Derrida in the first public eruption of a behind-the-scenes battle over his papers. VERBATIM: A New Testament scholar at the University of Sheffield discusses why early Christianity involved the shedding of many ancient Jewish laws. NOTA BENE: A sociologist at Yale University plumbs the politics of upscale accommodations in Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels. HOT TYPE: The Association of American Publishers has hired a public-relations firm to respond to the open-access-publishing movement. ... The former editorial board of the journal Topology, which resigned en masse last summer, has started up a rival title. THE 'SQUIRREL GUY': Joel S. Brown finds the perfect evolutionary-biology laboratory in his backyard. RENEGADE ECONOMISTS: The American Economic Association has disavowed a group that has claimed for six decades to be its offspring. BAD VIBRATIONS: Researchers at the University of Salford staged a yearlong online experiment to determine the worst sound in the world. The results are nauseating. Government & PoliticsNO-NONSENSE IN NEVADAThe state chancellor lives up to hopes that he would be a strong leader for a troubled system, but his bluntness may be his downfall. ACADEME WINS IN PARTISAN BATTLEThe day after the House of Representatives approved an increase in the maximum Pell Grant award, the Bush administration announced plans for the biggest jump in grant amounts in a generation. INDEPENDENTS' DAYRegulations should be adjusted to make financial aid more easily available to low-income, self-supporting students, write Leo Kornfeld, a managing director of a consulting firm that focuses on education, and Mark Kantrowitz, a publisher of FinAid.org and director of advanced projects at FastWeb.com. NEW RULES ON STUDENT LOANS: Proposed changes reflect the U.S. Education Department's concern that some colleges are forcing students to borrow from certain lenders. ON THE REBOUND: Colleges saw a sharp upswing in money from industry for science and engineering research and development in the 2005 fiscal year, says a report. BENEFIT STILL A BENEFIT: The U.S. Senate has failed to approve an amendment that would have required college employees and their children to pay federal income taxes on tuition reductions. NEW REQUESTS DENIED: The U.S. Education Department won't take new applications this year for a program that provides grants to institutions that mainly serve students from low-income families. SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM UNDER FIRE: Tennessee's Education Lottery has come under sharp criticism as a result of a drop in the number of black recipients. IN BRIEF: A roundup of higher-education news from the states. Money & ManagementNO-NONSENSE IN NEVADAThe state chancellor lives up to hopes that he would be a strong leader for a troubled system, but his bluntness may be his downfall. SHH. HELP'S ON THE WAY.At Hanover College, an "early-alert team" of administrators and faculty members tries to stay behind the scenes as it helps students stay on course. MUSINGS ON THE NAKED TRUCKERWhat's a dean to do when an alumnus's accomplishments are better placed in Facebook than in the viewbook? THE CHRONICLE INDEX OF FOR-PROFIT HIGHER EDUCATION: Recent developments in the industry. MILLIONS FOR MEDICINE: Brown University will receive a $100-million donation for its medical school. PARTISAN POLITICS: Law students at Duquesne University are protesting its president's refusal to allow certain politicians to be invited to speak at commencement. NOT IMMUNE: The University of Missouri's claim to be exempt from being sued over a patent has been rejected by a federal appeals court. PEER REVIEW: A renowned scholar of urban anthropology and public health is moving from the West Coast to the University of Pennsylvania. ... Politicians from both sides accept positions in academe. ... Yale appoints its first female chair of the physics department. StudentsSHH. HELP'S ON THE WAY.At Hanover College, an "early-alert team" of administrators and faculty members tries to stay behind the scenes as it helps students stay on course. THE JOURNEY CONTINUESStudents from Vanderbilt University join veterans of 1961's Freedom Rides to relive the civil-rights era. ACADEME WINS IN PARTISAN BATTLEThe day after the House of Representatives approved an increase in the maximum Pell Grant award, the Bush administration announced plans for the biggest jump in grant amounts in a generation. DAZE OF WHINE AND POSESNote to students on the right and the left: Universities are not democracies. If you don't like their policies, go somewhere else, writes Naomi Schaefer Riley, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's Taste page. NOT AFRICAN-AMERICANS: More than a quarter of the black students enrolled at selective American colleges and universities are immigrants or the children of immigrants, a study has found. MERIT SCHOLARS: A table shows the 97 colleges with 20 or more Merit Scholars in 2006. FISH DON'T WARBLE: Nearly a third of the students who took the Medical College Admission Test last month were stumped by a bizarre error in the verbal-reasoning section. LAWSUIT THREATENED: Grambling State University has reinstated the student newspaper after closing it for what they called a history of problems, including plagiarism and sloppy reporting. NEW RULES ON STUDENT LOANS: Proposed changes reflect the U.S. Education Department's concern that some colleges are forcing students to borrow from certain lenders. BENEFIT STILL A BENEFIT: The U.S. Senate has failed to approve an amendment that would have required college employees and their children to pay federal income taxes on tuition reductions. NEW REQUESTS DENIED: The U.S. Education Department won't take new applications this year for a program that provides grants to institutions that mainly serve students from low-income families. AthleticsFOOTBALL PLAYERS CHARGED: Six athletes at Guilford College are under investigation by the FBI for allegedly attacking three Palestinian students. Information TechnologyON THE RECORD, ALL THE TIMETechnology scholars and commercial researchers eagerly promote a "lifelogged" future in which we will make near-complete records of our daily lives with video cameras, audio recorders, and other tools. THE COOKIE CRUMBLESA professor's use of software to protect his privacy as he surfs the Web does not go unnoticed. Paul Cesarini, an assistant professor of visual communication and technology education at Bowling Green State University, describes his experience. 'WORLDWIDE PROMISE': Blackboard Inc., responding to critics' complaints, has pledged not to enforce its controversial patent on educational technology against open-source software providers or the institutions that use the software. InternationalPLANTING SEEDS IN THE SANDIsrael's only desert university is trying to improve living conditions in the disadvantaged Negev region. COME EAST, YOUNG STUDENT: Canadian colleges try to recruit students from Alberta, where an oil boom has lured young families. CLEAR POLICY REQUESTED: The United States needs to improve its visa-approval procedures to prevent barriers to foreign scholars and students, a coalition says. POOR NUTRITION: A registered nurse who raised questions about the research practices of an academic at Memorial University of Newfoundland years before he was discredited has sued the university. SONG STORY: Berklee College of Music raises money for Darfur by producing a CD. CLASS ACTION: Nine Canadian institutions are sharing a multimillion-dollar settlement of a lawsuit against vitamin companies over price fixing. A QUESTION OF STANDARDS: A third of all foreign graduates of Australian universities do not meet new visa requirements for English competency, says a report. SLOWING GROWTH: China's Ministry of Education will expand higher-education enrollments by only 5 percent this year in an attempt to reduce the pressures on universities. Notes From AcademeTHE JOURNEY CONTINUESStudents from Vanderbilt University join veterans of 1961's Freedom Rides to relive the civil-rights era. The Chronicle ReviewTHE COOKIE CRUMBLESA professor's use of software to protect his privacy as he surfs the Web does not go unnoticed. Paul Cesarini, an assistant professor of visual communication and technology education at Bowling Green State University, describes his experience. READ SLOWLYIn our information age, we have forgotten that literature is not just data, and that every work has its own pace, writes Lindsay Waters, an executive editor for the humanities at Harvard University Press. THE SOUL OF ECOLOGYReligious institutions have come to tackle daunting social issues like abolition and civil rights. Now a new, great challenge summons them: environmental crisis, write Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, who teach religion and ecology at Yale University. INDEPENDENTS' DAYRegulations should be adjusted to make financial aid more easily available to low-income, self-supporting students, write Leo Kornfeld, a managing director of a consulting firm that focuses on education, and Mark Kantrowitz, a publisher of FinAid.org and director of advanced projects at FastWeb.com. MEANING IN OBSERVATIONFrom top to bottom, Neal Rantoul's square-format photographs, with their unorthodox composition, give us a new perspective on America. DAZE OF WHINE AND POSESNote to students on the right and the left: Universities are not democracies. If you don't like their policies, go somewhere else, writes Naomi Schaefer Riley, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's Taste page. CRITICAL MASS: Dinesh D'Souza receives an onslaught of criticism for his latest book, which blames the cultural left for the 9/11 attacks. Letters to the EditorChronicle CareersSENSE OF HUMOR PREFERREDTelling a joke in a job interview is almost always a mistake, but that's not the only way candidates can show they are funny. CRAFTING A TEACHING PERSONAThe choices you make as a faculty member — and not just in the classroom — will affect the face you present to students. MUSINGS ON THE NAKED TRUCKERWhat's a dean to do when an alumnus's accomplishments are better placed in Facebook than in the viewbook? DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe Gazette |