Academe Today: Chronicle Archives

A Guide to the April 21, 1995, Issue
of The Chronicle of Higher Education

INTERNATIONAL

IN CENTRAL AMERICA, A NUN ON A MISSION
Sister Marylouise Fennell, a Catholic nun for more than 30 years, has held many posts, from teacher to college president. But none was as challenging as her current work with the Association of Private Universities of Central America, a group designed to raise educational standards in the region.

IN FRANCE, A QUEST FOR CHANGE
With the Presidential campaign moving into high gear, the Conference of University Presidents and the Independent National Student Union are together promoting a platform that stresses the need for more funds for higher education, and for maintaining universities as public institutions.

IN EUROPE, A DISPARITY IN EDUCATION
According to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, northern Europeans tend to be much more highly educated than southern Europeans. But U.S. citizens are the most educated of all: Almost a quarter have completed a college degree.

A chart and a table showing educational attainments and unemployment rates related to education in 20 industrial countries.
IN CHINA, AUTHORITIES HAVE SOUGHT to pre-empt potential student protests since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Now a senior Communist Party leader has warned students to behave themselves or face the consequences.
IN SOUTH AFRICA, PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA has ordered police to take action against students who have been protesting, occasionally with violence, the lack of opportunities for blacks in higher education.
IN BRITAIN, FINANCIAL-SERVICES COMPANIES are dissatisfied with the quality of students graduated by "the U.K. educational system," and are looking overseas for better recruits, according to a new report.
IN ISRAEL, THE DEATH OF A BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY student in a terrorist attack last week appears not to have changed the plans of hundreds of other American students now in the country.
IN AFGHANISTAN, KABUL UNIVERSITY HAS REOPENED after three years of factional fighting in the country's capital, but it will be a while before classes resume.
IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, STUDENTS WILL HAVE TO PAY some of the cost of their postsecondary education, under a proposed law on higher education that is expected to be approved this year.
IN NEW ZEALAND, MAORIS HAVE OCCUPIED part of the campus of Waikato University, on the northern island. The protesters said they were reclaiming land that was their own before Europeans confiscated it in the 1860s.

RESEARCH & PUBLISHING

REKINDLING THE DEBATE OVER HIROSHIMA
Scholars who defend the decision to drop the atomic bomb and those who oppose it agree that, by limiting its proposed exhibit on the subject, the Smithsonian Institution closed off an opportunity for discussion of this pivotal event. Now some 90 scholars have formed the Historians' Committee for Open Debate on Hiroshima to open such a discussion.

The American University plans to display many of the artifacts from the atomic bombings of Japan that the Smithsonian withdrew from its exhibit.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "ANIMAL"?
At a three-day conference this month at the New School for Social Research, scientists and humanists attempted to answer that question, to examine how human beings relate to other species, and to determine what rights they have and what our duties to them should be.

THE JESUS SEMINAR, A GROUP OF BIBLICAL RESEARCHERS intent on reconstructing the figure known in scholarly circles as "the historical Jesus," now asserts that He did not physically rise from the dead.
A STUDY CHALLENGING THE COMMON BELIEF that a rise in the minimum wage costs jobs has itself been challenged. A new study says that such a wage hike does indeed lead to fewer jobs. The two studies relied on different sets of data.
HOT TYPE.
- "Jewish Social Studies," a recently moribund journal, is gaining new energy from its new editors, Steven J. Zipperstein and Aron Rodrigue, both professors at Stanford University. The journal came out sporadically after the death, in 1990, of Salo Baron, its previous editor and a founding figure in Jewish studies.
- The University of Wisconsin Press will publish next year "Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Identity in the Academy," a collection of essays that takes issue with "doomsayers" who argue that Judaism has been irrevocably harmed as modern Jews identify more with cultural traditions than with religious practices.
100 NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS, briefly described.
Nota Bene: Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession, by Robert C. Fuller, a professor of religious studies at Bradley University. The publisher is Oxford University Press.

PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL CONCERNS

FACULTY SALARIES OUTPACE INFLATION
For the second year in a row, increases in professors' average salaries exceeded the rate of inflation but did not keep pace with the earnings of doctors and lawyers, according to a survey by the American Association of University Professors.

Average faculty salaries in the United States: four pages of figures from more than 1,900 colleges, universities, and multi-campus systems in 1994-95. The figures cover institutions both with academic ranks and without them: Pages A23-26
Three tables and a graph depicting average faculty salaries in 1994-95 by type of institution and by professors' academic rank and sex.
A graph depicting trends in faculty pay and the cost of living.

TOUGHER SCRUTINY FROM TIAA-CREF
Higher education's largest pension system is paying closer attention to the businesses it invests in. Officials of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund say the change will make more money for their participants, but some companies accuse TIAA-CREF of meddling and hypocrisy.

A LESSON BY EXAMPLE
Morris Schwartz, a sociology professor at Brandeis University for 35 years, is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, but he has maintained his composure, and a national audience wants to find out how he does it. His 75 reflections on living with a fatal illness will soon be published as a book.

DESIGNS ON A CLASSIC TRAIN STATION
Scott Gartner and Bill Green, professors of architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, champion the work of Raymond Loewy, one of America's greatest industrial designers ever. Now they're seeking to restore a 1949 train station in Roanoke that shows Loewy at his peak.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA HAS FIRED Tzvee Zahavy, a Judaic-studies scholar who simultaneously held tenured jobs at Minnesota and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte without informing either institution of his twin roles.
THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING has chosen 13 pairs of schools and colleges to test a new plan for improving elementary education.
UNIVERSITIES SHOULD TAKE A HARD LOOK at their engineering programs and make changes from top to bottom, according to a new report from the National Research Council.
A FEDERAL JUDGE HAS RULED that the chancellor of the University of Minnesota at Duluth violated the free-speech rights of two professors when he ordered their photographs to be removed from a history-department display.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY HAS FIRED Aryeh Motzkin, a philosophy professor who was accused of sexually harassing three female students and sexually assaulting a professor.
STEPHEN DOBYNS, a professor at Syracuse University who is also a well-known novelist and poet, has been suspended with pay for the rest of the semester after he threw a drink in the face of a graduate student at an off-campus party.
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, J. Dennis O'Connor, announced his resignation last week, after four years in office.
A RENOWNED SURGEON AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, John S. Najarian, and one of his colleagues pleaded not guilty last week to charges that they concealed data on nine deaths associated with a drug they were selling illegally.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

BRINGING ORDER TO INTERNET CHAOS
The Internet is an unorganized mass of material -- some of it wonderful, some of it awful -- whose size and changeability might seem to render it impervious to order. But academic librarians have begun an effort to categorize, evaluate, and index Internet resources for higher-education users.

One solution to the problem of Internet disorder would not require human beings to organize anything. Instead, an on-line "robot" would do your searching for you. Alas, this technology is still a few decades off.

GETTING PERMISSION ON THE INTERNET
The Copyright Clearance Center, a non-profit organization that handles photocopying permissions for many publishers, last week unveiled an Internet service designed to simplify the process. The on-line service allows users to report their copying plans and calculate the fees they must pay to do so.

THE COUNCIL FOR ADVANCEMENT AND SUPPORT OF EDUCATION has given its first awards for electronic publications produced by colleges, but it failed to find any entries worthy of its top honor.
A THINK TANK AT CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE last week received a $400,000 computer system, thanks to a technology-savvy student who wrote a proposal to the company that donated it.
A PROGRAM TO FOSTER COOPERATIVE electronic-publishing projects between university presses and higher-education institutions has grown from 13 to 23 projects. The program is sponsored by the Association of American University Presses and the Coalition for Networked Information.
TWO PROFESSORS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY have developed a way to let students easily incorporate moving images and sounds into their electronic "papers".
STUDENTS OF ART HISTORY AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE can tap into a data base containing about 3,000 images of the paintings they are studying.
A PROFESSOR AT VASSAR COLLEGE HAS CREATED an electronic data base of Shakespeare's work that should help researchers tease out more information about the Bard.

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

JUSTICE DELAYED
The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights was the focus of many hopes when President Clinton took office. Now civil-rights advocates criticize it for some of the same reasons they did under Republican Presidents: It takes too long to deal with racial issues and ducks tough questions.

In the two years since the Education Department issued guidelines for judging racial harassment, it has handled only two cases in which First Amendment rights were at issue.

COURT ORDERS THE CITADEL TO ADMIT WOMEN
A federal appeals court last week ordered South Carolina to admit a woman, Shannon R. Faulkner, to the Corps of Cadets at the Citadel military academy -- unless the institution goes private or establishes a comparable program for women elsewhere in the state.

GEORGIA'S BLACK COLLEGES FEAR ENROLLMENT DROP
Under a new plan that would stiffen admission requirements at the state's public colleges, enrollments at its three historically black colleges would plummet, officials say. Students who do not meet the new standards would be funneled into remedial classes at two-year colleges.

TAX FIGHT EMBROILS UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Internal Revenue Service is demanding $7.7-million in back taxes from the university, but Michigan claims it is entitled to a big tax refund. The case could set a precedent for colleges with income from activities not directly related to their tax-exempt missions.

INVENTING A "DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE"
Republicans in the House of Representatives are drafting plans to combine the National Science Foundation and some nine other federal agencies into a new Cabinet-level department. Among the plans' goals are to save money and to better coordinate the government's science policy and spending on research.

AFTER TWO FAILED ATTEMPTS TO FILL the U.S. Department of Agriculture post that oversees many university programs, President Clinton is trying again. The new nominee is Karl N. Stauber, formerly the vice-president of a foundation.
TWO FORMER EXECUTIVES of the Student Loan Marketing Association are leading a campaign by an upstart group of shareholders to gain seats on the company's board in hope of increasing its sagging market value.
CLINTON ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS HOPE that their plan to restructure federal support for adult and youth vocational programs will entice states to integrate those activities with other school-reform efforts.
THE U.S. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT'S Office for Civil Rights has found "no data" to support a charge that Brown University's financial-aid office discriminated against minority students.
REP. PAT WILLIAMS, A MONTANA DEMOCRAT, has introduced a bill that would create a trust to finance the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities, thereby avoiding future fights over Congressional appropriations for them.
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION HAS RESTRICTED Grambling State University's ability to administer student loans. The department cited financial problems at the college.

BUSINESS & PHILANTHROPY

UPSALA COLLEGE'S DEATH THROES
As the 102-year-old institution prepares to graduate its last class, observers cite financial disarray, management failures, and outright neglect as some of the reasons for its $13-million debt and imminent loss of accreditation.

QUESTIONS ABOUT A TOURING CHAIR
At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a donor's request to move a professorship he endowed from the tourism school to the business school has raised questions about the propriety of allowing a donor to influence such a decision.

SEVERAL MAJOR FOUNDATIONS ARE CLOSE TO ANNOUNCING that they will finance a panel to review the much-debated National History Standards. The panel will seek ways to make these guidelines for schoolteachers more usable.
THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON NOW BOASTS an array of baseball memorabilia, including early contracts between owners and players and one of Babe Ruth's paychecks. The collection was assembled by Miriam Jacobs, who bequeathed it last year.
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON has received its largest gift ever: $25-million from U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, an alumnus of the institution. The Democrat made the donation to help finance a $72-million basketball arena.
TWO COLLEGES IN BOSTON ARE SQUABBLING over a commencement speaker. Both Suffolk University and Boston College have invited John Hume, a leader in the Northern Ireland peace movement.
45 FOUNDATION GRANTS; nine gifts and bequests.

STUDENTS

TUITION FEES RISE, BUT NOT BY AS MUCH AS BEFORE
Private colleges and universities are limiting tuition increases for next year to 4 to 5 per cent, on average, according to the College Board. The institutions are said to be responding to concerns that "sticker shock" is scaring off families at all income levels.

HARVARD ADMISSION DECISION SPURS QUESTIONS
Admission officials around the country are abuzz over Harvard University's decision this month to take back an offer of early admission to a student who had killed her mother.

60 SENIORS GET WATSON FELLOWSHIPS
The Thomas J. Watson Foundation has awarded fellowships to 60 graduating seniors at 43 small U.S. liberal-arts colleges and universities for a year of postgraduate travel and study abroad. The fellows are listed here.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY STUDENTS HAVE MADE a sport out of entering campus buildings that are officially off-limits. Among their targets are the president's office and the art museum, which has been closed since a 1989 earthquake. The university police are not amused.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT THE NATION'S MILITARY ACADEMIES has not abated, despite several high-profile scandals in recent years, according to a new report by the General Accounting Office.
DOZENS OF STUDENTS AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY occupied the offices of the student newspaper and stopped publication of the "DePaulia" for two weeks, in protest of what they said was racism at the university.
FOUR BLACK STUDENTS AT GONZAGA UNIVERSITY'S School of Law, the only blacks in the first-year class, have received threatening, racist letters for the second time in two weeks.
MORE THAN TWO DOZEN STUDENTS at the City University of New York began a hunger strike last week to protest $41.5-million in budget cuts proposed by Gov. George E. Pataki.
MEMBERS OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION at Oklahoma State University held a traditional ceremony to wash away hard feelings they had toward unknown vandals who had damaged a tepee on the campus.
YALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS HAVE TRIED various tactics to prevent "Playboy" magazine from featuring nude classmates in a future issue. One group dashed naked across the campus in protest; another offered to pay Yale women not to pose.

OPINION & LETTERS

WHAT HISTORY SHOULD CHILDREN STUDY?
Gary B. Nash, a history professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and director of the center that wrote much-debated standards for teaching history in elementary and secondary schools, says that attacks on the standards have actually brought together history teachers and historians. In spite of the "culture war" now playing out across the United States, the new approaches outlined in the standards cannot be driven underground.

THE REAL THREATS TO SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
Scientific misconduct is often thought of as either plagiarism or the falsification of data. But according to John C. Bailar, III, chairman of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University, such misconduct is typically more subtle. Practices like the "cleaning up" of data for a better result and the mis-reporting or non-reporting of related research are widespread and have had bad effects on the making of public policy.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE ARTS

ON EXHIBIT: THE EXHIBIT
David J. Brown is the curator of an unusual show at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. The show, "Project: Exhibit," features the work of more than 30 contemporary artists, but every few days, the artworks are shuffled; some move, others are removed. The show closes April 23.

IMAGES FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD
"Eagle Transforming: The Art of Robert Davidson," a new book with text by Mr. Davidson and photographs by Ulli Steltzer, features wood carvings and sculptings that draw on traditions.

A Guide to the April 21, 1995, Issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education