ENDING AN EXPERIMENT
The University of California at Santa Cruz -- after decades of regarding letter grades as antithetical to its educational values -- is moving to impose them: A18

LIMITS ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT
A federal appeals court ruled that a professor who had been fired for writing anonymous letters attacking a campus president could not claim protection without owning up to writing the notes: A20

PEER REVIEW
A former spy chief, now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, faces an investigation over intelligence data. ... The director of the Center for Individual Rights, which fights racial preferences, is stepping down: A14

TRAINING FOR ENGINEERS
The Stevens Institute of Technology has teamed up with a professional association to offer an online approach to continuing education: A47

Harvard University will offer an interdisciplinary doctorate in black studies: A18

Yale University plans to fire a geology professor who pleaded guilty to child-pornography charges: A20

A scientist fired by Texas A&M University for misusing $100,000 in campus funds faces new charges: A20

Some colleges are forming joint faculties to help train teachers in academic subjects as well as pedagogy: A20

UNDERSTANDING PETER SINGER
Many of the ideas of the most controversial philosopher in the world are well within the mainstream of his field: A21

HOT TYPE
St. Augustine's Press, a start-up publisher of theology and philosophy books, attracts some big-name scholars. ... A forthcoming book about the Civil War literature reveals cross-dressing women and African-American heroes: A23

MAKING LOTS OF COPIES
Stanford University researchers are planning to test an approach to ensuring the preservation of electronic journals: A45

New scholarly books: A24-28

• Nota Bene: Cowboy Poets and Cowboy Poetry, edited by David Stanley and Elaine Thatcher.

• Verbatim: Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible, by Joseph A. Amato.

AN INFLUENTIAL ANALYST
The U.S. Education Department's Clifford Adelman uses data, storytelling, and conviction to help shape debates on key policies affecting colleges: A32

'HAMPERING SERVICE TO STUDENTS'
In a highly critical letter, several key Republican lawmakers said the Education Department's management of student-aid programs had deteriorated: A35

ELIGIBILITY FOR STUDENT AID
The Education Department announced that it would not block funds from going to the 140,000 applicants who did not answer a question about drug convictions: A35

A COSTLY ERROR
A contractor for the Education Department mistakenly told more than 30 students that they had won prestigious federal fellowships: A35

COMMENTING ON STEM CELLS
The National Institutes of Health received more than 20,000 letters and e-mail messages from supporters and critics of its guidelines to finance research that uses the human tissue: A36

IN THE CROSSFIRE
A presidential-campaign speech by Gov. George W. Bush of Texas has led to increased public scrutiny of Bob Jones University and its ban on interracial dating: A37

REGULATIONS AND ONLINE LEARNING
Distance-education providers told the National Governors' Association that burdensome rules in some states are hampering their business: A44

RELAXED RULES ON ENCRYPTION
After a five-year legal battle with the federal government, a professor has won permission to post his data-scrambling program online: A48

HUMAN SUBJECTS AT RISK
As dollars pour into biomedical studies at the nation's universities, the safety of people who participate in research projects is endangered, says Lori B. Andrews, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology: B4

'CREATING EQUAL'
In excerpts from his new book, Ward Connerly, the University of California regent who has challenged affirmative action there and in other states, describes the evolution of his thinking: B6

A new set of trading cards features facts, figures, and unflattering photographs of University of Wisconsin regents: A32

Lobbyists shouldn't lie, according to a new code issued by the American League of Lobbyists: A32

A key Republican senator vowed that the Education Department and the National Institutes of Health would get the money they requested for the 2001 fiscal year: A34

The Internal Revenue Service said it may go after colleges' income from deals with soft-drink, athletics-gear, and other companies: A36

New Mexico has acted to save its financially strapped scholarship program: A37

Panelists at a meeting of a teacher-education association said states' push for more accountability was making education schools reinvent themselves: A37

A bill in Nebraska would ban fetal-tissue research at the state's flagship university: A37

FIGHTING SWEATSHOPS
Under pressure from student protesters, some universities are abandoning an industry-led monitoring coalition in favor of a fledgling group with strong union ties: A38

SUPPORT FOR BRAIN RESEARCH
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology received a pledge of $350-million over 20 years, possibly the largest gift ever to a single college: A40

THE TOP PAYCHECK
In thinking about college presidents' salaries, the ways in which the job differs from a corporate C.E.O.'s are more important than the ways it is similar, writes Lloyd H. Elliott, president emeritus of George Washington University: A64

Yale University will spend $500-million on medical-school renovations: A38

Eastern Michigan University professors are offering a scholarship to encourage a hospitable atmosphere for gay people: A38

The Internal Revenue Service said it may go after colleges' income from deals with soft-drink, athletics-gear, and other companies: A36

Prime Numbers: Stanford University's 1999 M.B.A. recipients are making pretty good money: A14

Bond-rating update for February 2000: A40

Foundation grants; gifts and bequests: A41

LEARNING ABOUT E-COMMERCE
A Boston University professor has vowed to make all of his purchases online for a full year, as part of an effort to teach about Web-based businesses: A43

REGULATIONS AND ONLINE LEARNING
Distance-education providers told the National Governors' Association that burdensome rules in some states are hampering their business: A44

MAKING LOTS OF COPIES
Stanford University researchers are planning to test an approach to ensuring the preservation of electronic journals: A45

VIRTUAL BOB JONES U.
The controversial institution is offering online instruction to religious high schools and to parents who are home-schooling their children: A47

TRAINING FOR ENGINEERS
The Stevens Institute of Technology has teamed up with a professional association to offer an online approach to continuing education: A47

EVALUATING WEB-BASED LEARNING
A study of online psychology instruction indicates that it may be effective, but not satisfying to students: A48

RELAXED RULES ON ENCRYPTION
After a five-year legal battle with the federal government, a professor has won permission to post his data-scrambling program online: A48

LOGGING IN
Rob Kling, a professor of information science at Indiana University at Bloomington, warns that distance education should be used with care: A44

The Organization of American States and an education-telecommunications group are teaming up to offer online learning to Latin American schoolchildren: A43

The Adventures of Josie True is a Web-based game for girls, and was designed by an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo: A48

A student at the University of Pennsylvania is starting a virtual group for older undergraduates: A49

A DEADLY FIRE'S AFTERMATH
A January blaze killed three students at Seton Hall University, prompting calls from college officials around the country, and some lawmakers, for better protective measures: A49

MEDICAL CARE ON CAMPUS
A Massachusetts jury ordered Northeastern University to pay $4-million to the parents of a student who died after doctors at its health center failed to diagnose her leukemia: A51

THE 'COUNSELOR ADVANTAGE'
Every student who wants to go to college should have equal access to the best advice, but affluent families are increasingly turning to independent professionals whom needy applicants cannot afford, writes Bill Paul, the author of Getting In: Inside the College Admissions Process: B9

A senior at the University of South Florida is championing a naked tradition for the campus: A49

A student at the University of Pennsylvania is starting a virtual group for older undergraduates: A49

Short Subjects: sexual performance-art piece scandalizes San Francisco Art Institute; University of Oklahoma professor pilloried for comparing handgun to vagina; Beaver College considers name change to avoid ribald jokes; beer pong is alive and well at Middlebury College; New York University may tear down house of Poe: A12

ACADEMIC FREEDOM CREEPS BACK TO IRAN
The conservative ayatollahs are giving way -- slowly -- to reformers pushing for more-open debate and local control at universities: A52

PEASANTS TO PAPERMAKERS
A project led by artisans from Rutgers University at New Brunswick is giving economic hope and bringing ecological promise to Ecuadorian villagers: B2

Dispatch Case: Bangladeshi university closes after naming dispute turns violent; Ugandan anthropologist studies Germans and their dogs; strike at British Columbia colleges provides unplanned winter break: A52

THE TOP PAYCHECK
In thinking about college presidents' salaries, the ways in which the job differs from a corporate C.E.O.'s are more important than the ways it is similar, writes Lloyd H. Elliott, president emeritus of George Washington University: A64

HUMAN SUBJECTS AT RISK
As dollars pour into biomedical studies at the nation's universities, the safety of people who participate in research projects is endangered, says Lori B. Andrews, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology: B4

'CREATING EQUAL'
In excerpts from his new book, Ward Connerly, the University of California regent who has challenged affirmative action there and in other states, describes the evolution of his thinking: B6

THE 'COUNSELOR ADVANTAGE'
Every student who wants to go to college should have equal access to the best advice, but affluent families are increasingly turning to independent professionals whom needy applicants cannot afford, writes Bill Paul, the author of Getting In: Inside the College Admissions Process: B9

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• The importance of accuracy in attacks on the literal point of view: B3

• We need preservation, not development: B11

• When colleges go corporate: B11

• Outsourcing college bookstores: B11

• Saving species only to use them for sport: B11

• Accounting courses taught online: B11

LINKING ART AND INDUSTRY
Adolphe Braun and his team of photographers produced a record of 19th-century attitudes toward nature, nationalism, and the history of technology, now on view at the Rhode Island School of Design's Museum of Art: B108

NEW VIEW OF POST-TENURE REVIEW
Kerry Soper, an assistant professor of humanities, classics, and comparative literature at Brigham Young University, takes a look at some scary innovations in faculty evaluation: B10

• 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.