STALEMATE AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Other universities are keeping a close eye on the bitter, start-and-stop negotiations for an initial contract for teaching assistants, who won the right to unionize just a year ago: A16

TURMOIL AT BENNINGTON
A trustee's demand for tougher faculty reviews prompts the members of a key faculty panel to quit en masse: A17

PEER REVIEW
Harvard attracts two scholars of cognitive development, who point the psychology department in a new direction. ... Anil Gupta, a renowned logician at Indiana University, will rejoin several of his former professors at the University of Pittsburgh: A14

MAKING SENSE OF DAVID NOBLE
The controversial historian of technology has emerged as a leading critic of distance education, winning many academic fans while infuriating many others: A47

SOCIOLOGICAL ILLITERACY
We all have theories about the social world we live in, and in that sense we are all social scientists. But most of us are bad ones, writes Judith Shapiro, who offers a remedial course of action. The author is a cultural anthropologist and president of Barnard College: A68

THE ARGUMENT CULTURE
The assumption that intellectual inquiry should be conducted like a battle is bad for academe, writes Deborah Tannen, a professor at Georgetown University: B7

The Adam's Mark hotel chain, the target of two academic boycotts, has settled its racial-bias lawsuits: A16

Illinois State University faculty members voted down an effort to unionize, to the surprise of both friends and foes of the proposal: A18

Bard College and Rockefeller University have agreed to exchange students and professors: A42

TINKER, WRITER, ARTIST, SPY
A new book reveals how, during the cold war, intellectuals ended up on the payroll -- some wittingly, some not -- of the Central Intelligence Agency: A19

VIKINGS IN CANADA
The discovery of Norse-spun yarn on Baffin Island is reshaping scholars' views of the first contact between Europeans and Americans: A20

• A map at Yale may provide key evidence of the extent of Viking exploration of North America -- or it may be a fraud: A21

Researchers have created a potentially useful material that defies known physics: A22

New scholarly books: A24-28

• Nota Bene: Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, by Mark Juergensmeyer.

• Verbatim: Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It, by Jon Entine.

What they're reading on college campuses: a list of best-selling books: A14

SLAM-DUNK FOR STUDENT FEES
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of college rules requiring students to support all campus groups, including those with views they oppose: A29

The full texts of the Supreme Court decision and a concurring opinion: A31

TINY MATERIAL, BIG PLANS
Nanotechnology, the study and manipulation of matter at the atomic level, is poised to become a major priority in the federal budget: A38

WITHHOLDING CAMPUS JUDICIAL RECORDS
A U.S. judge ruled that universities would violate federal privacy laws by releasing files from student disciplinary hearings: A40

A NEW 'COVENANT'
A commission of public-university presidents urged greater collaboration between colleges and state and federal officials in an effort to improve American education: A41

THE GENOME IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE
When researchers have spelled out the three billion letters of the human DNA code, important new questions will confront us all, write Francis S. Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and Karin Jegalian, a science writer at the institute: B12

A housing shortage in Boston has prompted city officials to call on colleges to build more dormitories: A29

A lobbying firm headed by a former U.S. senator from Nevada has backed out of a deal to represent the Community College of Southern Nevada: A29

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court's decision banning the consideration of race in public-school transfers: A40

The Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives approved new tuition-related tax breaks, but the bill faces a likely veto: A40

Bills in Congress would set standards for fire safety in college dormitories, but the bills' outlook is dim: A40

West Virginia lawmakers approved a sweeping measure to revamp the systems for governing and financing state colleges, and the governor is expected to sign it: A41

A new panel at the City University of New York will review the missions and academic programs of the system's six community colleges: A41

New bills in Congress: A39

New federal regulatory actions: A39

People in Washington: A39

MAKING SMALLER GIFTS MATTER
In an era of mammoth donations, colleges are looking for ways to make those who give modestly feel that they still count: A42

SPENDING SPREE
American colleges are upgrading their academic hardware with $1.2-billion in purchases this year, according to a report by Dun & Bradstreet: A52

HEY, KID, HERE'S A MILLION
As undergraduate entrepreneurs flock to join the Internet gold rush with dot-coms of their own, some colleges are providing venture capital in exchange for a piece of the action: A53

'WAREHOUSES OF WEALTH'
Glenn C. Altschuler, a professor of American studies and dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at Cornell University, argues that payout rates from endowments are too stingy and should be substantially increased: B8

Bard College and Rockefeller University have agreed to exchange students and professors: A42

An Augsburg College alumnus has sued for the return of 13-year-old donation: A42

The heads of Georgetown University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison announced that they would step down next year: A45

Four former chairmen of the University of Toledo's Board of Trustees have issued a call for the current chairman's ouster: A45

Dickinson College has become the first American college to buy a franchise of Sylvan Learning Centers: A45

Eight colleges have provided updates on their fund-raising campaigns: A45

Two graphs depict trends in faculty pay and the cost of living and pension money invested in the stock market: A45

Foundation grants; gifts and bequests: A44

MAKING SENSE OF DAVID NOBLE
The controversial historian of technology has emerged as a leading critic of distance education, winning many academic fans while infuriating many others: A47

DISTANCE EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA
The state's 15 community colleges have created a consortium that will allow residents to take courses from any member college via the Internet and video technology: A51

FINDING ROOM FOR STUDENTS
The California State University System is requiring its most crowded campuses to increase their enrollment capacity by, among other tactics, relying more on distance education: A51

TRANSATLANTIC DEBATE
The Internet allowed students in the United States and Britain to engage in a competition without the need to travel: A51

CLASH IN THE CAPITAL
The University of the District of Columbia and municipal officials in Washington are fighting over whether the campus should own its computing center or share the city's: A52

SPENDING SPREE
American colleges are upgrading their academic hardware with $1.2-billion in purchases this year, according to a report by Dun & Bradstreet: A52

An Internet pioneer has described plans to extend the network to Mars: A47

The Southern Regional Education Board is seeking to cut tuition rates for online courses: A52

HEY, KID, HERE'S A MILLION
As undergraduate entrepreneurs flock to join the Internet gold rush with dot-coms of their own, some colleges are providing venture capital in exchange for a piece of the action: A53

SLAM-DUNK FOR STUDENT FEES
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of college rules requiring students to support all campus groups, including those with views they oppose: A29

WITHHOLDING CAMPUS JUDICIAL RECORDS
A U.S. judge ruled that universities would violate federal privacy laws by releasing files from student disciplinary hearings: A40

IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT
Undergraduates at the University of California at Davis run the bus company that gets students to classes on time -- usually -- and serves the rest of the city as well: B2

Eastern Connecticut State University is offering opera tickets as a punishment: A53

The parents of a Michigan State University student who died of alcohol poisoning now send birthday cards urging undergraduates to drink responsibly: A53

A student at Trinity College in Connecticut snorted a fatal dose of prescription drugs: A54

Short Subjects: Hudson Valley Community College's student newspaper runs into trouble over ad for strippers; University of Rochester enrolls 6-year-old prodigy; publishers hold math contest with a million-dollar prize; Morgan State University accused of stopping newspaper's presses; University of California employee racks up frequent-flier miles: A12

STRUGGLE IN PARADISE
The only institution of higher education in the Federated States of Micronesia is helping the nation of Pacific islands cope with a linguistic challenge: A55

EXCHANGES WITH IRAN
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright announced that the U.S. government was taking steps to encourage interactions between scholars in the two nations: A57

World Beat: scholars analyze "globalization" in Foreign Policy; China and South Korea plan new universities; student magazine in New Zealand provokes controversy by publishing suicide guide: A55

SOCIOLOGICAL ILLITERACY
We all have theories about the social world we live in, and in that sense we are all social scientists. But most of us are bad ones, writes Judith Shapiro, who offers a remedial course of action. The author is a cultural anthropologist and president of Barnard College: A68

MAKING THE OSTRICH SOAR
In writing about the earthbound birds, Rob Nixon, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, had to find a voice that did justice to his experience in South Africa: B4

THE ARGUMENT CULTURE
The assumption that intellectual inquiry should be conducted like a battle is bad for academe, writes Deborah Tannen, a professor at Georgetown University: B7

'WAREHOUSES OF WEALTH'
Glenn C. Altschuler, a professor of American studies and dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at Cornell University, argues that payout rates from endowments are too stingy and should be substantially increased: B8

THE 'BLACK JUDAS'
William Hannibal Thomas, a notorious white supremacist 100 years ago, was influential because he was black, and that makes him worth studying today, writes John David Smith, a professor of history at North Carolina State University: B9

THE GENOME IS OUT OF THE BOTTLE
When researchers have spelled out the three billion letters of the human DNA code, important new questions will confront us all, write Francis S. Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and Karin Jegalian, a science writer at the institute: B12

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• A flawed interpretation of Title IX is keeping male students from playing sports: B3

• Commercial publishers and serious books: B13

• Some students need more time to graduate: B13

• Millionaires in academe: B13

• Student-loan guarantee agencies: B13

PICTURING UTOPIA
A forthcoming book describes the photographers who documented a 19th-century religious community in Iowa: B10

SILENT POETRY
An exhibition and new book celebrate the "honest and direct little pictures" of the photographer Walker Evans: B96

• 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.