From the issue dated November 9, 2001
THE FACULTY
HELP FOR NEW PARENTS
The American Association of University Professors wants colleges to give extra time before tenure reviews to scholars who have newborns.
- BLOCKED PATH: Many women with tenure say that their family obligations prevent them from moving up the ranks.
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- PEER REVIEW: Harvard University has hired a psychiatrist as its new provost. ... Two of the top three contenders for law dean at Emory University do not have law degrees.
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- SYLLABUS: In "Human Biology: Selected Topics in Medicine," at Hampshire College, students examine real-life medical case studies to learn about the body.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
BABYLON ONLINE
Scholars of cuneiform have been struggling to keep from being overwhelmed by primary documents spread around the world. Now a new library will digitize the ancient writing.
PRICKLY SUBJECT
At a nature preserve on an Australian island, two American-born biologists study echidnas, oddball creatures that mix the adorable with the untouchable.
IBID., WHERE ART THOU?
In proposing to unify citation styles, academic specialists risk losing the Three C's: culture, control, and confusion, writes M. Garrett Bauman, a professor of English at Monroe Community College, in New York.
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- IN THEIR ELEMENT: Scientists are trying to figure out why organisms that "fix" nitrogen don't provide enough for most ecosystems.
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- VERBATIM: Neil Websdale, the author of Policing the Poor: From Slave Plantation to Public Housing, discusses how aspects of community policing undermine civil rights.
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- WHO KNEW? A team of researchers has established that caterpillars bang on leaves as a nonviolent way of arguing over territory. ... Two British psychologists see Regis Philbin in the role of messenger of the gods. ... The male earwig has two penises, and both of them work just fine, Japanese
ecologists report.
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- NOTA BENE: Christopher Dunn, author of Brutality Garden: Tropicalia and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture, explains the enduring influence of a musical form that arose in the 1960s.
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- HOT TYPE: The editor of a human-rights journal takes his idea elsewhere. ... The University of Chicago Press is continuing its series on women of the Renaissance.
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
CURBING 'PERENNIAL' STUDENTS
Colleges and legislatures are looking for ways to encourage undergraduates to finish in four years.
NEW ATTITUDE
For-profit colleges see a recent nomination as the latest sign that the Education Department is more receptive to their ideas.
FADING TOWARD IRRELEVANCE
A landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education became hallowed over half a century, but it has been hollowed over the last decade, writes Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School.
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- SETTING PRIORITIES: The Tennessee Board of Regents, trying to make budget cuts to the state-college system, were chagrined to discover that large payments had been made to PR firms.
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- LOBBYIST WATCH: A political-action committee aimed at raising money for lawmakers who support scientific research was established, the second such group created in the past three months.
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- 140 STEPS: Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige announced a detailed plan for dealing with management and student-aid problems.
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- BIOTERRORISM ROLE: At the behest of a key senator, American medical colleges are scrambling to prepare residents and students to deal with bioterrorism.
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- TIGHTENING THE RULES: President Bush ordered a thorough review of the student-visa system as part of his crackdown on terrorism.
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- A PUSH ON STEM CELLS: Scientists urged the Bush administration to step up research in the controversial field.
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- FIGHTING BIOTERRORISM: Sen. Dianne Feinstein plans to introduce legislation that would tighten controls on university labs that study anthrax.
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- PARING DOWN? Budget shortfalls may end a plan to increase the size of Pell Grants, the White House warns.
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- SELECTIVE MEMORY: Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston came under fire for flaunting his humble roots while ignoring his enrollment at a junior college.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
A VERY GOOD YEAR
The Chronicle's survey of the pay of private-college presidents found increases at the top levels, with especially lucrative packages going to some executives on their way out of office.
- MORE THAN A PAYCHECK: The salaries of executives in for-profit higher education are augmented by generous stock options.
- FACT FILE: A searchable database showing the pay and benefits of leaders at 600 private colleges and universities.
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- RECORD GIFT: The California Institute of Technology will receive $600-million from an alumnus and his foundation.
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- PEER REVIEW: Harvard University has hired a psychiatrist as its new provost. ... Two of the top three contenders for law dean at Emory University do not have law degrees.
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- FOUNDATION GRANTS; GIFTS AND BEQUESTS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
'DIGITAL DIVIDE'?
Some scholars say the idea that some groups are more technologically savvy than others is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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- NEW ARCHIVE: A collection of unpublished literature on forced migration comes online.
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- ENGINEERING IN CHINA: Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor team up to offer a master's degree in engineering manufacturing through distance learning.
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- CUTS IN COMPUTING: More college information-technology departments saw budget reductions this year than last, according to data from the Campus Computing Project.
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- BENCHMARKS ON SPENDING: Colleges' spending on information technology is growing faster than their spending in other categories, new data reveal.
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- MASTER OF ITS OWN DOMAIN: The Commerce Department handed over management of the ".edu" Internet domain to Educause, which will offer ".edu" addresses to two-year colleges.
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- TRILLIONS SERVED: Indiana University at Bloomington tripled the computational and storage capacity of its supercomputer for an expanding genomics-research program.
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- IDENTITY REQUIRED: A federal court ordered a company to name the professor who runs a Web site critical of the administration at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
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- STUDIES ON CYBERTERRORISM: Scientists warned Congress that the nation's computer networks could be easily disabled and urged it to finance more research.
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- GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY: The Education Department endorsed proposals to help Pacific Rim nations use technology in education and develop online courses.
STUDENTS
COMPROMISE AND CONFLICT
For Muslim students in the United States, whether religious or not, life can be a balancing act.
- COMMON GROUND: A gathering of Arab Fulbright scholars and American graduate students revealed both friction and friendliness.
TEAM SPIRITS
By using American Indian icons as mascots for their sports teams, universities disparage complex heritages and demean themselves, write two anthropologists, Charles Fruehling Springwood and C. Richard King.
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- THE NEW WARINESS: Speakers at the College Board's annual meeting talked about student life in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
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- FAN FARE: Unusual projectiles fly from the stands at several universities.
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- CAMPUS HUSTLERS: Two University of North Carolina at Greensboro freshmen were charged with prostitution.
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- CHALK SQUAWK: Expressions of gay pride, some of them sexually explicit, that were written on sidewalks provoked debate at Swarthmore College.
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- PRIME NUMBERS: Since September 11, college students are praying more, donating more to charity, and displaying the flag more readily, a survey has found.
INTERNATIONAL
LEARNING TO BE FREE
A Liberian university shattered by the country's seven-year civil war struggles to rebuild.
- LONELY JOB: The curator of a war-ravaged museum that is empty of artifacts is also the curator of less tangible things.
THE TRULY GLOBAL CAMPUS
When they design international-education programs, colleges should give weight to educational as well as entrepreneurial goals, write Madeleine Green and Michael Baer of the American Council on Education.
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- WORLD BEAT: Yoga and "indigenous systems of medicine" will be added to the curriculum at Indian medical schools. ... In British Columbia, a woman was convicted of arson and jailed for setting a dormitory fire. ... A university hospital in Tokyo has added luxury rooms for Very Important Patients.
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- STRIKE IN SOUTH KOREA: Students at teachers' colleges walked out over a government plan to allow secondary-school instructors to teach in elementary schools.
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- MULTILINGUAL IN CHINA: The Education Ministry has ordered some colleges to start lecturing in English and teaching with English-language textbooks.
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- GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY: The U.S. Education Department endorsed proposals to help Pacific Rim nations use technology in education and develop online courses.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
IBID., WHERE ART THOU?
In proposing to unify citation styles, academic specialists risk losing the Three C's: culture, control, and confusion, writes M. Garrett Bauman, a professor of English at Monroe Community College, in New York.
DRY EYES
Would art historians see works of beauty more clearly through tears? asks James Elkins, a professor of art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
FADING TOWARD IRRELEVANCE
A landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education became hallowed over half a century, but it has been hollowed over the last decade, writes Jack M. Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School.
TEAM SPIRITS
By using American Indian icons as mascots for their sports teams, universities disparage complex heritages and demean themselves, write two anthropologists, Charles Fruehling Springwood and C. Richard King.
PRAYER-SHAWL BARBIE
The Jewish Museum Berlin presents too many objects and too few ideas, writes Julia M. Klein, a cultural reporter and critic.
MONSTERS AND GODS
Horror sometimes serves as the underside of theology, emphasizing creation's questions over its answers, writes Timothy K. Beal, an associate professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University.
COCA-COLONIZATION
A photographer seeks the real thing in Nepal.
THE TRULY GLOBAL CAMPUS
When they design international-education programs, colleges should give weight to educational as well as entrepreneurial goals, write Madeleine Green and Michael Baer of the American Council on Education.
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- MELANGE: Selections from recent books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GAZETTE
CAREER NETWORK JOB NOTICES
DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS,
including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
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