DOCTORS AND UNIONS
In the wake of the American Medical Association's vote to form a union, medical residents at teaching hospitals are among those beginning to organize: A14

REVERSE BIAS
The director of a nursing program at the Montana State University College of Technology at Great Falls discriminated against a male nursing student when she referred to men as "sperm donors," a state investigator has ruled: A15

TAXING SABBATICALS
The State of Michigan is seeking revenue from out-of-state professors who spend their leaves working there: A16

PROVOST ACCUSED OF SLAPPING PROFESSOR
A top official at Delgado Community College has taken a leave of absence, pending an investigation: A16

ASSESSING ON-LINE LEARNING
The first-ever accreditation of a "virtual" university has forced those who measure quality in higher education to confront the need for standards appropriate to the technology: A29

PEER REVIEW
The University of California at Riverside has lured an ethicist from the Irvine campus, where the philosophy program is under repair. ... An anonymous letter asked the president of Mississippi University for Women to resign: A58

THE UNIVERSITY of Mobile has declined to rescind its policy of hiring only Christians, despite criticism from one of its benefactors: A14

NATIONAL LABOR COLLEGE, a two-year-old institution that educates working adults who are union members, held its first commencement last month: A10

IGNORING RESEARCH
Studies of education play a minimal or non-existent role in policy debates about schools -- to the consternation of many scholars: A17

LIFE IN THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH
Two miles deep in a South African gold mine, microbiologists have found thriving communities of bacteria that may provide clues to life on Mars: A19

DISPUTE OVER MARKETING
The Massachusetts Medical Society, which owns The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prestigious venues for publishing medical research, is ousting the editor: A22

DESIGNATED BATTER
Michael J. Schell, a medical statistician at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, calculates that baseball's best hitter ever was not Ty Cobb but a player who is on the field today: A12

HOT TYPE
An English professor at the University of Wyoming is writing a "community memoir" about a gay student's murder. ... Columbia University Press cuts price on "Son of Sam" book. ... The Art Bulletin's next editor plans more writing by curators: A20

SERVING UP SOME HISTORY
June Guralnick, an artist in residence at Rockingham Community College, in North Carolina, felt that a book combining local history and recipes might be a nice project. She was right: B2

SCIENTISTS at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created human cancer cells, a feat that should improve the understanding of how they develop in the body: A23

TWO ETHICISTS at the National Institutes of Health say that human subjects of medical research should be paid wages similar to those earned by unskilled laborers: A23

A RESEARCHER at California State University at Fresno has developed a dried salsa that he says will eliminate the problem of the dip going bad: A10

AN ENTOMOLOGIST at the University of Florida has invented an insect repellent that contains none of the hazardous substance known as DEET: A12

NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS: A24-27

• Nota Bene: Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism, by Dana Frank.

• Verbatim: Inside the Klavern: The Secret History of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, edited by David A. Horowitz.

ASSESSING ON-LINE LEARNING
The first-ever accreditation of a "virtual" university has forced those who measure quality in higher education to confront the need for standards appropriate to the technology: A29

A NEW MODEL
In a pilot project at the State University of New York at Buffalo, the publisher Houghton Mifflin and the Follett Corporation, a college-bookstore operator, distributed electronic textbooks with "digital rights management" features for summer courses: A31

A WIDER AUDIENCE
A commercial computer network may give many small colleges their first access to high-speed applications heretofore found only on exclusive research networks: A34

ARGUING AT A DISTANCE
Reaching students on line and in other venues outside the traditional classroom is no panacea for higher education, but neither is it an anathema, writes Dennis A. Trinkle, an assistant professor of history at DePauw University and executive director of the American Association for History and Computing: A60

PEDAGOGY ON THE WEB
The new medium could help to transform teaching, but the potential has yet to be tapped, writes Alistair B. Fraser, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University: B8

CORNELL UNIVERSITY has created a national consortium to further "cluster computing" as a way to fashion virtual supercomputers out of groups of linked P.C.'s: A29

A FEDERAL AGENCY has awarded a grant of more than $400,000 for research on preserving electronic records: A29

A WORLD-WIDE WEB SITE sponsored by the University of Kentucky provides an encyclopedic resource on crops, cattle, and farming: A33

SIX RESOURCES ON LINE; four books related to information technology: A33

SCIENCE-RESEARCH CUTBACKS
An appropriations bill approved by a House of Representatives subcommittee would reduce spending on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation, as well as the AmeriCorps national-service program: A35

BREATHING ROOM FOR COLLEGES
The Internal Revenue Service will delay for another year a set of stringent and costly reporting requirements related to two tax credits for tuition: A36

GOOD NEWS FOR UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX
A U.S. Education Department audit of financial-aid programs is expected to result in a smaller penalty than projected: A36

TOUGHER TIMES AHEAD?
State spending on higher education will probably take a turn for the worse over the next several years, a report says: A38

ACCESS TO ADVANCED-PLACEMENT CLASSES
An American Civil Liberties Union chapter has sued California, arguing that students in low-income neighborhoods are at a disadvantage in college admissions because their high schools offer few of the courses: A38

MANAGING STUDENT LOANS
The U.S. Education Department will select six guarantee agencies for an experiment to find more-flexible ways for such entities to operate: A40

IGNORING RESEARCH
Studies of education play a minimal or non-existent role in policy debates about schools -- to the consternation of many scholars: A17

SEN. TOM HARKIN has proposed a measure that would force his colleagues to choose between cutting taxes and following through on a pledge to increase funds for biomedical research: A35

THE CHANCELLOR of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth is leaving to become president of a liquor-industry trade association: A35

DATA REPORTED in a leading medical journal show big differences in how much reimbursement teaching hospitals receive from Medicare for the training of residents: A41

THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency has proposed an experiment to help three New England colleges manage hazardous waste on their campuses: A41

COLLEGES SHOULD BE WARY of relying too heavily on standardized tests in admissions and should be candid about their admissions criteria, a report says: A41

VIRGINIA LACKS IMMUNITY from a sex-bias lawsuit involving George Mason University, a federal appeals court has ruled: A43

FLORIDA'S Board of Regents has voted not to create two new public law schools as a way to increase the number of minority lawyers in the state: A43

MICHIGAN WILL DEVOTE $1-billion from its share of the national tobacco-lawsuit settlement to biotechnology research: A43

TWO ETHICISTS at the National Institutes of Health say that human subjects of medical research should be paid wages similar to those earned by unskilled laborers: A23

PATENT FIGHT CONTINUES
The stakes are rising in a protracted legal battle between the University of California and Genentech Inc. over a growth-hormone drug. Now as much as $1.5-billion may be in play: A45

BIG GRANT FOR RESEARCH
The W.M. Keck Foundation has pledged $110-million to the University of Southern California's medical school: A48

TAXING SABBATICALS
The State of Michigan is seeking revenue from out-of-state professors who spend their leaves working there: A16

BREATHING ROOM FOR COLLEGES
The Internal Revenue Service will delay for another year a set of stringent and costly reporting requirements related to two tax credits for tuition: A36

A NEW ORGANIZATION aims to help independent college bookstores stay competitive: A45

A NEW DORMITORY at the University of Maryland at College Park has spelled the end of a famous miniature golf course: A45

THE WORLD-WIDE WEB is the future of fund raising, a consultant told attendees at last month's annual meeting of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education: A48

COLLEGES CAN SAVE money when they buy insurance by following some basic steps, according to speakers at last month's annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers: A48

TRINITY COLLEGE in Vermont says it must merge or shut down because of financial problems and enrollment dips: A10

THE UNIVERSITY of Massachusetts at Amherst is considering making electric cars the official campus vehicles: A12

FOUNDATION GRANTS; gifts and bequests: A49

BATTLE FOR STUDENTS
Two community colleges in the Detroit area -- one predominantly black, the other largely white -- are going to court over one's alleged designs on the other's territory: A51

ACCESS TO ADVANCED-PLACEMENT CLASSES
An American Civil Liberties Union chapter has sued California, arguing that students in low-income neighborhoods are at a disadvantage in college admissions because their high schools offer few of the courses: A38

THE MULTIPLE BURDENS OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
Especially at exam time, students with the right diagnoses get accommodations that shortchange others and that unfairly impose on professors, write Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci, who are, respectively, an associate professor and a professor of human development at Cornell University: B4

MALE PLEDGES at fraternities are almost as likely to be victims of women's sexual coercion as women are of men, says a new study: A51

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY has announced an 11.3-per-cent tuition increase for 2000-01, its largest in 14 years: A51

THE INDIANA SUPREME COURT has ruled that a fraternity chapter may be sued for failing to protect a student from sexual assault at one of its parties: A10

WHAT THEY'RE READING on college campuses: a list of best-selling books: A12

A $3-BILLION POT
A sports-marketing company is hoping that its lucrative offer will eliminate some of the resistance among college presidents to creating a postseason playoff for National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A football teams: A53

HIRING PERFORMANCE CRITICIZED
Colleges have a "poor" record when it comes to diversifying their athletics departments, according to a new report: A54

THE NEW BASKETBALL COACH at the University of Minnesota, who took over after an academic-fraud scandal, will get a bonus if his players improve their grades: A53

THE BREAKUP of the Western Athletic Conference has thrown into chaos several other leagues in the Western United States: A53

NEW ORDER IN KOSOVO
As ethnic Albanians retake control of the damaged University of Pristina, Serb academics fear for their lives as well as their future: A55

IRANIAN AUTHORITIES have arrested more than 1,400 students in the wake of anti-conservative riots last month: A55

ISRAEL WILL LET Arab students take a college-preparatory program free to increase their numbers at the country's universities: A55

A THAI COMMISSION will probe the submission of spurious high-school grades for use in the state-university admissions process: A57

ARGUING AT A DISTANCE
Reaching students on line and in other venues outside the traditional classroom is no panacea for higher education, but neither is it an anathema, writes Dennis A. Trinkle, an assistant professor of history at DePauw University and executive director of the American Association for History and Computing: A60

THE MULTIPLE BURDENS OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
Especially at exam time, students with the right diagnoses get accommodations that shortchange others and that unfairly impose on professors, write Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci, who are, respectively, an associate professor and a professor of human development at Cornell University: B4

PEDAGOGY ON THE WEB
The new medium could help to transform teaching, but the potential has yet to be tapped, writes Alistair B. Fraser, a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University: B8

TEACHING CRITICISM
Students think that analysis means crankiness, according to Mary S. Alexander, who offers a strategy for inspiring critical thought. The author is an adjunct instructor at Western Connecticut State University and at Norwalk Community-Technical College: B9

MARGINALIA: mistakes, foibles, and other amusements on the lighter side of academe: A10

• Proponents of food studies turn up the heat on their foes: B3

• The woes of academic-job seekers: B10

• Human subjects of research: B10

• An assembly line after graduation: B11

• Feeling let down after getting tenure: B11

• "Intellectual freedom" at Baylor University: B11

• Stricter standards at the City University of New York: B11

CELEBRATING HITCHCOCK
One hundred years after the birth of the director, Thomas Doherty, an associate professor of film studies at Brandeis University, recounts the filmmaker's legacy and explains his hold over the popular imagination: B6

SERVING UP SOME HISTORY
June Guralnick, an artist in residence at Rockingham Community College, in North Carolina, felt that a book combining local history and recipes might be a nice project. She was right: B2

PUPPETS ON PARADE
An exhibit at the University of Minnesota shows the work of the people of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre: B64

A MEXICAN ARTIST has completed a four-panel fresco at Southern Arkansas University: A10

• APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS on U.S. campuses.

• DEATHS of people in academe.

• COMING EVENTS: conferences, workshops, and seminars.

• DEADLINES for fellowships, grants, the submission of papers, and more.

DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe.