Academe Today: Complete Contents

A GUIDE to the January 24, 1997, Chronicle

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Items relevant to more than one category may appear more than once in this guide. To read the complete text of the article, click on the highlighted words.

INTERNATIONAL

IN FRANCE, AN ACADEMIC SETBACK
An American-style private university has run into enrollment and financial problems as well as government resistance: A37

IN IRELAND, CONTROL OF UNIVERSITIES
The government has watered down a controversial plan that many academics said would cost the institutions too much autonomy: A38

IN HONG KONG, THE COMING TRANSITION
During the first years of Chinese rule, universities will experience budget cuts and tighter standards for admission: A39

IN JAPAN, the government is reaching out to students in the United States via their teachers: A37
IN VIETNAM, the office of the Institute for International Education is seeking information on American colleges: A37
IN BRITAIN, the University of Oxford will search for a new site for a business school: A39
IN SUDAN, officials have closed the University of Khartoum and issued a call to arms: A39
IN ISRAEL, the government has pledged funds to employ immigrant scientists: A39

RESEARCH & PUBLISHING

METEORITE CITY
A small group of hardy scholars travels to Antarctica each year to find extraterrestrial debris that may yield insights into important scientific questions: A10

Research is raising more questions about the widely publicized claim last year that a meteorite bore traces of life on Mars: A11

BRITANNIA'S CHILDREN
A new book by a U.S.-born scholar has stirred controversy in Britain by suggesting that colonial images in juvenile literature perpetuated racist stereotypes and a belief in English superiority: A12

COPYRIGHT FIGHT OVER A CD-ROM
The American Council of Learned Societies and Macmillan Inc. have settled a lawsuit over a planned electronic version of the 30-volume Dictionary of American Biography: A25

THREE LEADING ECONOMISTS are circulating a petition attacking the proposed balanced-budget amendment: A8
FOUR EDUCATORS are publishing their letters about aging: A8
THE BORNEAN RHINOCEROS is a genetically distinct subspecies, scientists say, and thus it may be difficult to save: A14
GREEK ARCHAEOLOGISTS say they have uncovered the Lyceum -- the school where Aristotle taught: A14
A NEW CD-ROM ATLAS of the Arctic Ocean contains key data that the Cold War kept secret: A14
"SYNAPTIC DEPRESSION" helps the human brain focus on key sensations, scholars report: A14
HOT TYPE: A16
- Three editors at a journal published by the Foundation for Economic Education were fired after being accused of printing anti-Semitic articles.
- W.W. Norton & Company is publishing the late Christopher Lasch's last book, Women and the Common Life, a collection of essays on love, marriage, and feminism edited by his daughter, Elizabeth Lasch-Quinn.
83 NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS, briefly described: A15-18
- Nota Bene: Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States, a collection of essays edited by Juan F. Perea, a professor of law at the University of Florida. The book is published by New York University Press.

THE FACULTY

STARTING A BUSINESS
Many M.B.A. programs are adding classes in entrepreneurship that are often taught by people with practical experience rather than doctorates: A8

TEACHING FRESHMEN
Stanford University announced an ambitious program last year to bring together senior professors and new students, but few academic departments have thus far sought to participate: A9

THE PREGAME SHOW
Hilton K. Jones, a music professor at the University of South Florida, plays a decidedly non-academic role at the Super Bowl: A7

FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBERS at the Community Colleges of Baltimore County are protesting the firing of their chancellor: A6
TWO PROFESSORS HAVE EDITED a book of poetry about dogs, by famous and not-so-famous poets: A6

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

THE FUTURE OF H-NET
A network of mailing lists and a World-Wide Web site devoted to the humanities have experienced tremendous growth. Managers are now debating whether to move beyond a focus on e-mail: A23

Organizers of an H-NET project hope to produce timelier reviews of scholarly books and to encourage more debate about the critiques: A24

NEW SOFTWARE is available to help professors teach courses on line: A23
A WORLD-WIDE WEB SITE offers a global directory of graduate programs: A23
CIVIL-LIBERTIES and library groups say a New York law limits free speech on line, and they're suing to kill it: A25
THE FEDERAL BUREAU of Investigation is looking into hate-filled e-mail sent from Creighton University: A25
8 SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, 16 Internet lists, and 12 other Internet resources: A27

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

STUDENT-LOAN WARS
The battle for control of the $35-billion market is still going strong, and some educators worry that the interests of the borrowers are getting short shrift: A19

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Two colleges in Georgia thought that getting Newt Gingrich to teach courses would be good for them, but they now find themselves caught up in his ethics problems: A20

THREE LEADING ECONOMISTS are circulating a petition attacking the proposed balanced-budget amendment: A8
THE OPENING OF THE 105TH CONGRESS has brought a flurry of bills on education: A19
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT HAS SET fines for museums that violate the law on repatriating American Indian remains: A21
SCHOLARS ARE CAMPAIGNING to protect the financing for a Central Intelligence Agency service that provided translations of foreign news programs: A21
TWO RESEARCHERS have been found guilty of scientific misconduct: A21
GOVERNOR GEORGE E. PATAKI has suggested budget cuts for the State and City Universities of New York: A22
FOES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION have established a national group to further their cause: A22
A COURT HAS UPHELD the controversial steps the City University of New York took during a fiscal crisis: A22
HIGH SCHOOLS IN MASSACHUSETTS will get reports on their graduates from public colleges in the state: A22
A REPORT HAS RANKED the quality of the public-education systems in each state: A22
A GENETICIST at Georgetown University has admitted that he violated the Roman Catholic institution's ban on embryo research: A6

MONEY & MANAGEMENT

THE VALUE OF DISCRETION
A number of colleges are ending their practice of including personal information in the files they keep on donors: A28

ACCREDITATION DECISIONS
Knoxville College risks losing certification because of its budgetary problems, but Barber-Scotia College has been taken off probation: A29

ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY gives money away yet lessens its debt: A28
THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA has received a large gift for gay students: A28
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS are forcing Ambassador University to close: A30
TULANE UNIVERSITY DOCTORS are being offered a financial stake in the chain that runs the medical center: A30
FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBERS at the Community Colleges of Baltimore County are protesting the firing of their chancellor: A6
STEVE SMITH, a professional-basketball star for the Atlanta Hawks, is giving millions to Michigan State University: A33

STUDENTS

A COMPETITIVE EDGE
More high-school students are turning to private consultants to guide them through the college-admissions process, but many educators are not impressed: A31

LEAVING THE CITADEL
Two women who charged that they had been subjected to hazing announced that they would not be back for the spring term: A32

THE MAN BEHIND an alleged cheating scam has gone public: A31
LOUISIANA FRATERNITIES have been told they can't circumvent drinking-age laws by declaring their buildings "private residences": A31
A STUDENT HAS SUED the University of South Florida for confiscating a videotape depicting lesbian sex: A6
A FRATERNITY HAS PAID $2.25-million to the parents of a deceased student to settle a hazing suit: A6
TWO STUDENTS DIED of smoke inhalation, at Central Missouri State University and the University of Tennessee at Martin: A7
FRATERNITY BROTHERS at Arkansas State University have discovered Elvis Presley's signature on a membership roll: A7

ATHLETICS

THE NCAA CONVENTION
Delegates approved the final details of the association's restructuring plan and voted to let athletes hold jobs during the academic year: A33

Other issues at the meeting included complaints about bowl games, a fight with a newspaper, and proposals to allow some athletes to take out loans: A34
Summaries of the rules changes that were adopted last week at the 91st annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association: A35-36

FALLOUT FROM A GAMBLING SCANDAL
Boston College has announced punishments for 21 students who allegedly placed or handled illegal bets on sporting events: A34

STEVE SMITH, a professional-basketball star for the Atlanta Hawks, is giving millions to Michigan State University: A33
IN THE CLASSROOM, the women's-basketball team at Bethany College in Kansas has again scored big: A33
ALUMNI ARE CAMPAIGNING against the University of Florida's new alligator logo, calling him a "steroid lizard": A6

OPINION & LETTERS

GOOD MEDICINE
If an experimental drug could help a comatose person, informed consent should take a back seat to doing what is in the best interests of the patient, says Norman Fost, a professor of pediatrics and director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison: A48

THE BATTLE OVER EBONICS
Teaching inner-city students to translate Black Vernacular English into standard English will not help their educational, economic, and social ills, writes Dennis Baron, a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: B4

TILT TO THE LEFT IN ISRAEL
More than any "intellectual dictatorship" of universities, the country faces liberal bias in the news media, according to Hillel Halkin, an essayist and journalist in Israel: B6

ON STAGE
Heather C. Hill, a graduate student in political science at the University of Michigan, recounts her travails at the podium in making her first appearance as a scholarly presenter: B7

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE ARTS

WRITING FROM THE MARGINS
Val Coleman, an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, explores the unseen side of New York City in his first novel, When Beverly Met Marigold: B8

NOTES FROM ACADEME
Richard Schechner, a professor at New York University, is directing a production of Chekhov's Three Sisters that sets each of the four acts in a different time period: B2

IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Graciela Iturbide explores community and the legacy of communal knowledge in her new book of photographs, Images of the Spirit: B80

EVEL KNIEVEL, the death-defying stuntman of the 1970s, is the focus of an exhibit at the University of South Florida's Contemporary Museum of Art: A7