For One Family, Life Gets in the Way of Paying for College

As the Schillinger family's fifth child enrolls amid hard times, a scramble for money becomes an odyssey.

Economy Changed Freshmen's Plans but Didn't Shake Their Confidence

Ambitious and harried, waylaid by a bad economy: That's the typical freshman this year, according to an annual national profile.

Colleges' Endowments Earned 12 Percent but Still Trail 2007 Value

A surging stock market helped produce healthy returns in 2010, partly reversing historic losses the year before, an annual survey has found.

End Run Around an Embargo: One Professor's Program in Cuba Since 2004

A professor at Hampshire College, who has been running an exchange program in Cuba for years, talks about what the lifting of restrictions will mean.

Middlebury College Invents a Pushy Redhead to Ease Dishware Theft

Miiddlebury College officials hope that a little humor will raise students' consciousness about returning dishes to the dining hall.

UCLA Professor Studies a Group Stereotyped as a 'Model Minority'

Jerry Kang, who holds a new chair in Korean-American studies, is eager to explore that group's complex experience and identity.

Also Riding on Super Bowl XLV: Some Bread, Some Cheese, and the Hopes of 2 Colleges

The presidents of the two colleges where the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers train in the summer have a friendly wager on this year's Super Bowl.

'Faculty of 1000' Aims to Reshape Peer Review

Vitek Tracz hopes to reinvent the basics of scholarly communication, increasing transparency, with the network some call the "Facebook of science."

Scholars Create High-Impact Journal for About $100 per Year

Doing it themselves, without a professional publisher, a group of herpetologists has developed an important and respected publication.

Not Just Good vs. Evil: Teaching the History of Terrorism

Three professors discuss how to teach undergraduates a subject that prompts visceral reactions and black-and-white judgments.

Faculty Groups Gather to Craft a United Stand on Higher-Education Policy

Professors from public colleges met to lay the groundwork for a national campaign to influence what happens to academe in a time of great pressure.

New Question for Professors: Should Students Be Allowed to Attend Classes Via Webcam?

The classroom is changing. With the spread of video services like Skype, students attend remotely and professors bring in "talking heads" as guest speakers.

With Lawsuit, For-Profit Colleges Step Up Fight Against New Regulations

The colleges argue that three new rules, including one designed to prevent misrepresentation in recruiting, exceed the Education Department's authority.

Can New Online Rankings Really Measure Colleges' Brand Strength? Unlikely, Experts Say

College officials aren't certain that the rankings are telling them whether their marketing messages are reaching the people they're going after.

Penn State to Dump Coal for Natural Gas

The flagship university in a state built on coal power has approved a plan to spend up to $35-million to convert its aging coal plant to natural gas.

Ending U.S. Grant Program Would Imperil States' Need-Based Student Aid

The Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership program fills the gap for those who don't get merit aid but are not poor enough for Pell Grants.

Obama Calls for Spending Freeze but Says He'll Spare Education

College lobbyists praised the president's proposal to increase support for education and biomedical research, but it might be a hard sell for Republicans.

College Freshmen Report Record-Low Levels of Emotional Health

Depression, once at the forefront of students' concerns, has taken a back seat to anxiety, according to the results of a survey by the University of California at Los...

At Persian Gulf Universities, Alternative-Energy Research Anticipates End of Oil Wealth

The oil-rich countries may not seem the likeliest patrons of research on solar or wind or biofuel energy. But academics are looking ahead.

Afghan University Leaders Meet at Ball State U. to Call for More Help From the West

The officials asked Western colleges interested in partnerships to be attentive to local needs and the goals of the government's education plan.

At Al-Quds U., a Maverick Proposes an Interim Route to Israeli-Palestinian Accord

Sari Nusseibeh, the president of Al-Quds University, has long defied conventional wisdom. Now he's proposing a new route to peace in the Middle East.

Learning to Read­—Again

One of graduate students' hardest lessons is how to tread water in a vast sea of text.

Narcissus Regards a Book

The common reader today is someone who has fallen in love--with himself.

Monty Python's Academic Circus

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition--or high modernism in the guise of British goofballery.

Conveniently Illogical; Meetings of Scientific Minds

The benefits of selective irrationality; four friends who transformed science

My Midlife French Lessons

A student again, a professor learns more than a new language.

The Complicated Life of Zora Neale Hurston

Protesting an Abusive God

States Can Reap Rewards by Supporting Research

Other states can learn from North Carolina: Investment in colleges brings jobs, a strong economy, and acclaim.

Campus Security and the Specter of Mental-Health Profiling

Looking back, forcing Seung-Hui Cho or Jared Loughner into counseling might have been a good idea. But what would the cost be for many other students?

Federal Aid Is Key to an Educated Work Force

The higher-education community must make the case to Congress now about the importance of aid programs for the nation's neediest students.

ROTC Still Bans Transgender Students

"The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not allow transgender individuals to serve openly, even with the 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal in place."

Autopsy Report Overlooks Libraries' Other Roles

"Libraries do more than serve undergraduates, yet the prognostication of demise focuses on them."

Are Historians AWOL From Public Debate?

"For historians, of all people, to simply whitewash their colleagues out of existence, even while we are alive and kicking, is quite an accomplishment."

Leave Dr. Seuss Out of It

Why it's a mistake to view your graduate-school admissions statement as a creative-writing exercise.