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From the issue dated May 18, 2007 |
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Short SubjectsSWIMMING SLOWLY TOWARD EXTINCTIONA Stanford grad student dreamed up this year's first-ever Great Turtle Race, in which reptile enthusiasts monitored the migration of corporate-sponsored leatherback sea turtles. THE OTHER COMMENCEMENT EXERCISESCollege seniors mark their impending graduations with official and unofficial rituals, some more dignified than others. YOU SAY 'CADAVER,' I SAY 'CARRION': Texas State University's planned "body farm" was opposed as a magnet for vultures. CARDINALS IN SIN CITY: The Catholic University of America brought high officials of the Roman Catholic Church to Las Vegas for an annual fund raiser. KUMAR GOES TO THE IVORY TOWER: With a name like Kal Penn, how could the actor not become a college instructor? HONORS FOR AN OLD PUNK: Syracuse University has bestowed its highest alumni award on Lou Reed, who graduated from the institution in 1964. The FacultyNOT WITHOUT A FIGHTA group of professors at Ave Maria School of Law has been battling the decision to move it from Michigan to a Catholic-oriented town being built in Florida. A RELUCTANT AMBASSADORAn accomplished Kenyan writer and visiting instructor at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y., is more interested in teaching students about writing than about Africa. QUIETING THE MINDA faculty member takes a two-year leave in the Peace Corps to reconsider his chosen profession. PEER REVIEW: Students and alumni at Gallaudet University rally around a new president and provost. ... The University of Notre Dame attracts an economist by recruiting his family. ... A famous legal-scholar couple is moving from Iowa to California. ... A celebrity violinist will teach at Indiana University's music school. SYLLABUS: Students at George Mason University learn the factors related to personality that make happiness more likely in "The Science of Well-Being." Research & Books'TRAIN WRECK AHEAD'A report from Arthur Levine's Education Schools Project recommends closing a number of research-oriented doctoral programs in education. SWIMMING SLOWLY TOWARD EXTINCTIONA Stanford grad student dreamed up this year's first-ever Great Turtle Race, in which reptile enthusiasts monitored the migration of corporate-sponsored leatherback sea turtles. GHOST WRITERSLet us now praise anonymous journal-article reviewers, for they toil in a valuable, unappreciated literary genre, writes Leon Fink, a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. DINOSAURS ON THE ARKThe new Creation Museum presents ancient beliefs in contemporary curatorial formats. Some skeptics may treat it as a mere curiosity, but it could undermine attitudes toward science and the empirical study of nature, writes Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago. REALITY CHECKJamestown is the cradle of many things, but representative democracy, as we understand it today, isn't one of them. As we commemorate the little outpost's 400th anniversary, let's do so accurately, writes Peter C. Mancall, a professor of history and anthropology at the University of Southern California. ECCENTRIFUGAL FORCERudolf Steiner had some bizarre notions, a new book reminds us -- and some highly influential ones, too, writes Carlin Romano, critic at large for The Chronicle. RULE OF 'THUMOS': Humanities scholars need to remind other academics of the importance of the individual, said a Harvard political scientist in the 36th Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. BY THE NUMBERS: The first data from the Humanities Indicators project bring hard facts and figures to the field. HOT TYPE: At least three journals leave the University of Chicago Press as it changes financial agreements and publishing software. NOTA BENE: Hippies of the Religious Right considers the links between evangelicalism and 1960s youth culture. Government & PoliticsTHE DEEPEST CUTSWhen state budgets tighten, regional colleges are among the first to suffer. Several in Oregon are struggling with million-dollar shortfalls. BORROWING TROUBLEThe Education Department has disclosed that an official who was suspended over connections to lenders also issued a major 2004 ruling that benefited Sallie Mae, his former employer. LAWMAKERS EYE OFFSHORE INVESTMENTSThe Senate Finance Committee considers taxing university holdings in overseas hedge funds. FROM BAD TO WORSEStandardized measures of postsecondary student achievement are a bad idea. Having accrediting agencies monitor them is a worse idea. And a federal bureaucracy in charge of it all would be worse still, writes A. Lee Fritschler, a professor of public policy at George Mason University. IAGO GETS NO RESPECTNo college or university can survive without at least one person on the payroll who thinks about nothing but politics. MORE REPORT CARDS: The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education will rate states' higher education for at least one more year. 'ABSOLUTELY NOT': Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said her agency had no plans to create a test to measure colleges' performance. SOLOMON AMENDMENT UPDATE: The Defense Department has issued proposed rules for a 1994 law that allows the government to withhold money from colleges that limit military recruiting on their campuses. AN END TO 'PRIMARY CONSIDERATION'? A federal policy change could limit how military-service academies give preference to minority students. BLACK HOLE? There is no way to tell whether the more than $3-billion the government spends annually to improve science and mathematics education is effective, a federal committee says. STILL IN CHARGE: The University of California will continue to manage Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under a new Energy Department contract. RESEARCH WILL GO ON: The House of Representatives has rejected two attempts by Republicans to block federal support of research projects they consider frivolous. SPELLINGS GRILLED: Before members of Congress last week, the U.S. education secretary defended her department's ability to oversee student lending. 60 PERCENT, TOPS: The Texas Senate has approved a cap on the number of high-ranking high-school seniors who must be promised a spot at the state university of their choice. IN THE STATES: A roundup of higher-education news. Money & ManagementLAWMAKERS EYE OFFSHORE INVESTMENTSThe Senate Finance Committee considers taxing university holdings in overseas hedge funds. THE 800-POUND DONORWhen a college has only one multimillionaire alumnus, building the right relationship is crucial to fund-raising success. LONG ROAD TO CLEVELAND: One alumnus of Case Western Reserve University is riding his bike 2,800 miles to his 50th reunion. 2 MONTHS OUT OF OFFICE: Southern University's governing board has suspended the system's president while officials investigate allegations of sexual harassment by the board's former chairman. MONEY UPFRONT: New York University will receive $650-million for selling a portion of its future royalty rights from sales of the arthritis drug Remicade. NEW PRESIDENT: Purdue University's next leader will be France A. Córdova, an astrophysicist who is chancellor of the University of California at Riverside. CHECK, PLEASE: A study has found that most philanthropies are willing to pay the operating expenses of the colleges and other charitable organizations they support. BIG GIFT: The University of the Pacific will receive $100-million from a regent and her husband, a former regent. GIVING UP: New Hampshire will not appeal a court ruling that said it must extend health benefits to the same-sex partners of two female state-college employees. ACCREDITATION UPDATE: Actions taken by regional groups during the past month. PEER REVIEW: Students and alumni at Gallaudet University rally around a new president and provost. ... The University of Notre Dame attracts an economist by recruiting his family. ... A famous legal-scholar couple is moving from Iowa to California. ... A celebrity violinist will teach at Indiana University's music school. Information TechnologyTHE WIRELESS SOCIETYA scholar at NYU warns that new technologies may endanger civil liberties. THANKS FOR THE MEMORYBombarded by more information than he can absorb, a professor quits trying and turns to technology. LESS MEMORY IS MORE: An associate professor at Harvard University says computers should be taught to forget as well as to remember. MAKING A DISTINCTION: New software can help Web sites tell the difference between humans and computer programs. SECOND LIFE GOES POSTSECONDARY: Case Western Reserve has created a virtual campus to woo prospective students. ON 'OBVIOUS' INVENTIONS: A recent Supreme Court ruling may help invalidate patents, like some of Blackboard's, that critics say are too broad. StudentsTHE OTHER COMMENCEMENT EXERCISESCollege seniors mark their impending graduations with official and unofficial rituals, some more dignified than others. THEY'RE COMING BACKAfter a difficult year for New Orleans colleges, several report a brighter enrollment outlook for this fall. NO MORE TIERS: The advocacy group urging colleges not to take part in institutional rankings plans two meetings this year. TOOTH AND CONSEQUENCES: Indiana University's School of Dentistry has disciplined nearly half of the 95 students involved in a cheating scheme. AthleticsONE STEP BACK, 2 STEPS FORWARDBirmingham-Southern College is moving its sports program from the NCAA's Division I to Division III in an attempt to improve the college's bond rating and erase a running deficit. 'YOU'RE RESPONSIBLE': College athletics officials should prepare for emergencies during large sporting events, says an expert at the University of Southern Mississippi. InternationalTHE END OF IRAQI HIGHER EDUCATION?Academics there are losing not only their livelihoods but also, in many cases, their lives. THE CLASH WITHINThe frictions that erode democracies are not between civilizations, but within ourselves. The experience of India is instructive -- and deeply worrisome, writes Martha C. Nussbaum, a professor at the University of Chicago. FOURTH WEEK: University campuses across Israel have been closed as students intensify their protest against proposed tuition increases. Notes From AcademeA RELUCTANT AMBASSADORAn accomplished Kenyan writer and visiting instructor at Union College, in Schenectady, N.Y., is more interested in teaching students about writing than about Africa. The Chronicle ReviewTHE CLASH WITHINThe frictions that erode democracies are not between civilizations, but within ourselves. The experience of India is instructive -- and deeply worrisome, writes Martha C. Nussbaum, a professor at the University of Chicago. BULLET POINTSHow can we work ourselves into such a politically correct dither over Don Imus's language, while still equivocating about gun control after Virginia Tech? Where are our priorities? asks Russell Jacoby, a professor in residence in the history department at UCLA. GHOST WRITERSLet us now praise anonymous journal-article reviewers, for they toil in a valuable, unappreciated literary genre, writes Leon Fink, a professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. DINOSAURS ON THE ARKThe new Creation Museum presents ancient beliefs in contemporary curatorial formats. Some skeptics may treat it as a mere curiosity, but it could undermine attitudes toward science and the empirical study of nature, writes Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago. REALITY CHECKJamestown is the cradle of many things, but representative democracy, as we understand it today, isn't one of them. As we commemorate the little outpost's 400th anniversary, let's do so accurately, writes Peter C. Mancall, a professor of history and anthropology at the University of Southern California. ECCENTRIFUGAL FORCERudolf Steiner had some bizarre notions, a new book reminds us -- and some highly influential ones, too, writes Carlin Romano, critic at large for The Chronicle. 'IMMEDIATE MEANING'In the work of the Swiss artist John Armleder, what you get is what you see. FROM BAD TO WORSEStandardized measures of postsecondary student achievement are a bad idea. Having accrediting agencies monitor them is a worse idea. And a federal bureaucracy in charge of it all would be worse still, writes A. Lee Fritschler, a professor of public policy at George Mason University. CRITICAL MASS: When academe learned that one of its most-prominent admissions officers had misrepresented her credentials, a lively discussion ensued. Letters to the EditorChronicle CareersTHANKS FOR THE MEMORYBombarded by more information than he can absorb, a professor quits trying and turns to technology. QUIETING THE MINDA faculty member takes a two-year leave in the Peace Corps to reconsider his chosen profession. IAGO GETS NO RESPECTNo college or university can survive without at least one person on the payroll who thinks about nothing but politics. 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