 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
This week's discussionsThursday, October 25, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time
National statistics show that the professoriate is becoming more and more diverse. Yet the increase in the proportion of minority scholars in the United States over the last decade has continued to lag behind because the number of white and foreign professors has also risen. With the baby-boom generation of professors beginning to retire, colleges will have enormous opportunities to diversify their faculty ranks. But what's the best way to achieve that goal? Should institutions have more programs to encourage their minority graduate students to stay on and teach, or should they focus on recruiting from other institutions and graduate schools? Sponsored by:
Coming discussionsThursday, November 1, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time
Once considered the stepchild of the university, schools of continuing education are fast becoming the sources of some of the most innovative and entrepreneurial ideas in American higher education. Known for their flexible scheduling, their creative approaches to marketing, and their ability to react quickly to the changing needs of prospective students, the schools have also been able to capitalize on booming demand from older students for credit and noncredit courses. Often the schools also make a profit. With more and more adult students now seeking college-level courses, what lessons can the rest of higher education learn from savvy continuing-education programs? Should some of their marketing strategies, approaches to serving students, and even teaching methods be applied to traditional arms of colleges and universities? Thursday, November 8, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time
The National Science Foundation is offering grants to encourage technology-related research under a new program called Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation. The program aims to spur the use of advanced computing to enhance research in a number of fields, including engineering, the hard sciences, and the social sciences. In addition to paying for new supercomputers, the grant program is intended to finance creative computational methods for compiling and interpreting data. The idea is to expand the uses of high-powered computing, and maybe solve some of the world's ills in the process. The program is budgeted for $26-million in grants next year, and that number is expected to grow in following years. Can such advanced computing be used in other fields? For what sort of work? What types of discoveries are already being made? How can a university get a grant? |
About live discussions
Join Chronicle editors every Thursday at noon, U.S. Eastern time, for the Brown Bag, a new online discussion. Each week we will be joined by an expert from the world of college finance, technology, management, or other fields for a free and freewheeling discussion. Suggest a topic or guest. 
Go beyond the headlines as we discuss topics making news with the experts in Colloquy. Discussion TranscriptsHow Should the Sustainability Movement Change Campus Planning and Architecture? Going "green" means more than turning down thermostats in unused classrooms and recycling old plastic bottles. As a small but growing cadre of colleges are discovering, it often requires a fundamental rethinking of how campuses are laid out and how new buildings are designed ... (10/18/2007) Getting an Academic Life in Second LifeColleges around the world are opening virtual campuses in Second Life, a three-dimensional, colorful environment that can be accessed via a computer. One of those campuses is New Orleans Island, which was built by Merrill L. Johnson ... (10/11/2007) So You Want to Internationalize Your Campus. Now What?Globalization is pressing many colleges to reconsider how they fit into the larger world. For some, that means establishing programs ~~ or even branches ~~ overseas. For others, it means putting greater emphasis on study-abroad programs and internationalizing their curricula. How far should colleges go, and how can they make it happen? (10/4/2007) The Future of Open Source in Higher EducationMany colleges have decided to rely on open-source software instead of commercial software for their campuswide systems. The price is right -- it's free. But there are challenges to adopting software built by a group of volunteers, and software companies say ... (9/27/2007) Forums
Forum: Professional wrestling? Trolling for Krispy Kremes? What are your guilty pleasures? Share them online. |
