Short Subjects

The former Huron University is having a sale and everything — we mean everything — must go.

NAVIGATING THE HEAVENS: Islamic scholars discuss how Malaysia's first astronaut can fulfill his religious duties as a Muslim in space.

PLEASE DISTURB: A music-composition major at Illinois Wesleyan University recently staged a campuswide performance using car alarms.

A NEW ANGLE: The association for college bass fishing is working to make more competition opportunities for college teams.

WHAT THEY'RE READING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: A list of the best-selling books.

The Faculty

Ward Churchill plagiarized, falsified, and fabricated research material, an investigative panel at the University of Colorado at Boulder has found.

Three female chemists speak out about how women can succeed in the male-dominated field.

• KNOW THE FACTS: An associate professor at the University of Oklahoma crunches the numbers.
• GET PUSHY: An investigator at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory doesn't avoid confrontations.
• BE A MENTOR: A chemist at the University of Oregon stresses nurture.

NOT TO BE COUNTENANCED: A Stanford professor has sued David Horowitz, the conservative activist, for copyright infringement in a pamphlet that features the professor's photograph.

PEER REVIEW: The top candidate for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas presidency withdraws. ... More faculty and some alumni weigh in for and against the dean at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale's College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. ... Lynn University promotes a second Ross family member to its presidency.

SYLLABUS: Students at Michigan State University can learn about the myths and realities of the spy world in "Technology in the Service of Espionage."

Research & Books

A few neurobiologists are pushing the traditional boundaries of their field by considering questions of mind and spirit.

• WHAT PRAYER LOOKS LIKE: Researchers hope that brain scans will help them identify neurological responses shared by practitioners of various religions.
• THE NEXT BATTLE: A neuroscientist is forging connections between his research and the concept of intelligent design.

A budget crunch at NASA has academic scientists worried about the future of basic research.

Lindsay Waters wonders why that premier egghead journal, Critical Inquiry, would debase itself by ranking literary theorists.

Guy-lit protagonists have trouble committing to work, women, and principles. Is it any wonder, Michael Kimmel asks, that readers have trouble committing to guy lit?

Chick-lit protagonists, on the other hand, struggle to balance work, men, and principles. Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young investigate why academics, especially feminists, shun explorations of the popular genre.

THE BEST DEFENSE: Speakers at a convocation of humanities groups exhorted the attendees to become more active in the public sphere.

SCANDAL IN SEOUL: Woo Suk Hwang, the South Korean scientist who fabricated stem-cell findings, has been charged with fraud, embezzlement, and bioethics violations.

NOTA BENE: A historian at Virginia Commonwealth University describes how Protestant and other churches adopted Catholic accouterments in the 19th century despite growing anti-Catholicism.

HOT TYPE: A folklorist's look back at his recordings from the 1970s in Northern Ireland triggers a revival of mumming there.

NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS

Government & Politics

A budget crunch at NASA has academic scientists worried about the future of basic research.

Are political blogs most like caucuses, fund raisers, meet-the-candidate gatherings, political operatives, rallies, TV ads, or talk radio? If you know the answer, David D. Perlmutter writes, there are some campaign consultants eager to talk to you.

PUBLIC-RELATIONS CRISIS: In the face of increasing criticism, the president of the University of California has offered a plan to clean up compensation practices systemwide.

CENSORSHIP LIMITS: Public-college officials' control over the content of student newspapers would be limited by a bill passed by the California Assembly.

NO PENALTY: The National Governors Association has asked the U.S. Department of Education to modify the eligibility rules for a grant program in order to accommodate dual-enrollment students.

JOB SWITCH: A top official at the National Governors Association will join the U.S. Education Department to help the agency carry out the recommendations expected from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.

RULING POSTPONED: The U.S. Commerce Department plans to form a committee to study ways of controlling foreign students' and scholars' access to sensitive technologies.

EXEMPTION EXTENDED: New federal tax legislation includes a measure to preserve the issuance of tax-free bonds by the University of Texas and Texas A&M University Systems.

IN BRIEF: A roundup of higher-education news in the states.

Money & Management

Tulane is looking to the future despite a small freshman class and New Orleans's lack of progress in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

• 'NO HOPE': Still without a campus nine months after the hurricane, Southern University at New Orleans is struggling to survive.

WARNING LETTER: A U.S. senator has threatened legislative action against American University's governing board over its handling of the spending scandal that unseated the university's president.

WHO'S MAKING WHAT: A report by the National Association of College and University Attorneys details compensation for higher education's legal staffs.

GIVING CREDIT: The federal government has recognized 72 colleges among its 1,500 Best Workplaces for Commuters.

AFFILIATION TESTED: The Tennessee Baptist Convention has voted to reject an amendment that Belmont University had adopted in an attempt to gain more independence.

CHILDREN'S HEALTH: The University of Texas System has received a $50-million gift from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation for programs and facilities the system's Austin campus.

TULANE SUIT: Two heirs of Josephine Louise Newcomb have sued Tulane University, saying it violated the terms of her donation by dissolving its women's college.

Information Technology

Many campus facilities directors are using Web-based software to coordinate supplies and work crews.

LAPTOPS MANDATORY: Officials at colleges that require students to have computers answer questions about their programs.

GOING UP: A report says colleges will see big increases in telephone and Internet fees if the formula of the federal government's Universal Service Fund is revamped.

Students & Athletics

Students who are mothers say their progress toward graduation is hampered by college-housing and financial-aid policies.

• DUE-DATE DILIGENCE: Some colleges, particularly Roman Catholic ones, have developed resources for students who are pregnant or mothers.

As the number of women who play college sports continues to rise, the odds are that there will be more pregnant athletes. Not many colleges have policies to protect them.

In the wake of the lacrosse scandal, Elizabeth J. Chin's anthropology students at Duke University study the unfamiliar cultures on their campus.

The rules of attribution are complex and contrary to many students' experiences. Deborah R. Gerhardt says that, like any rules, they need to be carefully explained and regularly reinforced.

MYSTERIOUS OR MEANINGLESS? Slightly lower SAT scores this year have admissions officers and high-school counselors scratching their heads.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENT: As of this fall, incoming students at Goucher College will have to earn some credits abroad in order to graduate.

'FANTASTIC LIES': A third lacrosse player at Duke University was indicted on rape charges last week.

MORE STUDENTS: Admissions applications surged in 2005, says the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

RIGHTS VIOLATION? Students who were photographed by campus police officers at a pro-marijuana rally at the University of Colorado at Boulder plan to sue the university.

ATHLETES PUNISHED: Northwestern University has suspended its women's soccer team over suspicions of hazing.

International

Some university leaders in India are calling for a return to traditional dress on their campuses -- but only for women.

No judicial system is an island. But when it comes to studying legal systems abroad, American law schools are pretty insular, David Fontana says.

MANAGING ABU DHABI: Insead, one of the world's top business schools, will open a campus in the United Arab Emirates.

TRADE RESEARCH: The National Autonomous University of Mexico has opened a center dedicated to China studies.

HANXIN HOAX? A leading Chinese scientist lied about the development of what was hailed as China's first homegrown computer chip, his university has announced.

NEW PLUG FOR BRAIN DRAIN: The Italian government has suspended a program of short-term academic hiring, choosing instead to pay for permanent positions.

TO COMPETE WITH THE U.S.: The European Commission has singled out nine areas where universities should focus their modernization efforts.

THE REAL VICTIMS? Thousands of medical students in India went on strike at hospitals to protest a proposal to increase quotas for lower castes in universities.

'UNIVERSITY IN EXILE': Prominent Western educators have pledged to help the European Humanities University re-establish itself in Lithuania.

WASHINGTON AND TRIPOLI: The U.S. decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with Libya has led to the renewal of academic exchanges.

BRAIN TUMORS: An Australian university has evacuated the top two floors of one of its main buildings in response to a cancer scare.

Notes From Academe

On Washington's Bainbridge Island, a program offers management training for the environmentally conscientious.

The Chronicle Review

In the wake of the lacrosse scandal, Elizabeth J. Chin's anthropology students at Duke University study the unfamiliar cultures on their campus.

Are political blogs most like caucuses, fund raisers, meet-the-candidate gatherings, political operatives, rallies, TV ads, or talk radio? If you know the answer, David D. Perlmutter writes, there are some campaign consultants eager to talk to you.

Lindsay Waters wonders why that premier egghead journal, Critical Inquiry, would debase itself by ranking literary theorists.

No judicial system is an island. But when it comes to studying legal systems abroad, American law schools are pretty insular, David Fontana says.

Guy-lit protagonists have trouble committing to work, women, and principles. Is it any wonder, Michael Kimmel asks, that readers have trouble committing to guy lit?

Chick-lit protagonists, on the other hand, struggle to balance work, men, and principles. Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young investigate why academics, especially feminists, shun explorations of the popular genre.

Caryl Churchill's work owes its individuality to its bold deconstruction of ours, says Julia M. Klein.

A book chronicles the West Virginia that progress left behind.

The rules of attribution are complex and contrary to many students' experiences. Deborah R. Gerhardt says that, like any rules, they need to be carefully explained and regularly reinforced.

MELANGE: Excerpts from books of interest to academe.

Letters to the Editor

• Unnecessary Proposals for Reform of Accreditation
• Fairness at Duke in Law and Journalism
• Social Responsibility at Coke
• Ways to Compare Apples and Oranges in American Higher Education
• The Legacy of Leo Strauss
• Cartoons by Carole Cable and Matthew Henry Hall

Chronicle Careers

Up for tenure, an assistant professor on a joint appointment finds that neither department understands his work.

CAN YOU REPEAT THE QUESTION? A professor in his 30s begins wearing a hearing aid and worries how he will be perceived on the campus.

PHONE-A-THON FOLLIES: A development officer works a phone bank, calling alumni for donations, and finds the task trying, demoralizing, and rewarding.

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