Penn State Begins Academic Year Under a Cloud

As students return, upperclassmen express shame in their university. Professors look for defenders at the top.

Who's in Charge of Sports?

For the 25 institutions with the largest athletic departments, the presidents' contracts lack any reference to oversight.

Holding Presidents Accountable for Sports

Chart: Leaders' Contracts Touch on Diverse Goals—Except Athletics

Historians Ask Public to Help Organize the Past

Historical-documents projects are looking to crowdsourcing for help in getting archives online. But is the crowd up to the task?

Decisions 2012: 'The Status Quo Is Not Working'

Education policy goals in the Republican platform support alternatives to traditional colleges, bank-based lending, and fighting liberal bias on campuses.

U. of South Florida Professor Is Media Presence at GOP Convention

Susan MacManus says her dual roles as an academic and political pundit go hand in hand.

Held Up as a Defense, Spanier's Scholarship on Children and Sex Carries Ironies

Graham Spanier has made his scholarship and professional history a piece of his defense. What do his writings reveal?

Faculty-Review Proposal at Saint Louis U. Would 'Eviscerate Tenure,' AAUP Says

Options in the proposal, part of a broad policy overhaul, include moving faculty to non-tenure-track positions or firing them with a year's notice.

Campuses Turn to Remote Call Centers to Handle Flood of Calls

Think you're calling a college or university? The person answering might be nowhere near the campus.

'Sex and God at Yale': a New Indictment in an Old Genre

An alumnus hopes a memoir accusing Yale of bawdy excess provokes some soul searching at an institution that he sees as having lost its moral compass.

An Academic Ghostwriter Comes Clean

Dave Tomar spent nearly a decade helping students cheat. In a new memoir, he spells out his grievances with higher education, and his regrets.

Scholars Challenge Author's Assertion That 1960s Activist Worked for FBI

A new book claims that even as Richard M. Aoki was arming the Black Panthers, he was also reporting to the FBI. Critics say the author offers little proof.

Adjuncts' Working Conditions Affect Student Learning, Report Says

Short-notice hiring and a lack of instructional resources are major impediments to effective teaching, says the report, based on a survey of adjuncts last fall.

University Inventions Earned $1.8-Billion in 2011

Many institutions reported strong gains in the latest survey by the Association of University Technology Managers.

Sortable Table: Universities With the Most Licensing Revenue, FY 2011

With 'Access Codes,' Textbook Pricing Is More Complicated Than Ever

As companies bundle online course materials with textbooks, pricing is more complicated than ever—and students are losing the option to buy books used.

Changes in Visa Processing Cause Headaches for International Students

Colleges had no warning of a U.S. policy change that took effect just as tens of thousands of new students were arriving. Officials scrambled to find fixes.

Record Summer Heat Shifts Public Opinion on Global Warming

Record summer heat shifts public opinion on global warming.

For a Growing Number of Freshmen, Packing for College Requires a Passport

More colleges today are looking to offer overseas programs for first-year students, lasting from a few weeks to as long as a full academic year.

Percolator: Mystery Relative’s DNA Highlights Unique Human Traits

A young woman from southern Siberia has been tantalizing scientists for two years. She's 50,000 years old, and she may have mated with our more direct ancestors.

Percolator: The Monk and the Gunshot

A startling study about the power of meditation has been consistently exaggerated, but its findings remain remarkable—just for other reasons.

UCLA Beefs Up Environmental Humanities With 3 Hires From Stanford

The three blend the humanities with science, and two of them are joining the university's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Retired at Last, and in a New President's Post Just Days Later

At 71, Theodora J. Kalikow retired from leading the University of Maine at Farmington. And then, within days, she was tapped to lead another institution.

New Dean Hopes to Heighten Wilson School's Influence on Policy

Cecilia Rouse says she hopes the Princeton school's research findings will be accessible to the public as well as lawmakers.

The Templeton Effect

The foundation is pouring big money into answering big questions, giving philosophers new clout.

Rachel Carson's Prescience

As "Silent Spring" turns 50, the environment is in even more peril than Rachel Carson feared.

At 'Brain Camp,' Building a Field With Lectures, Lunches, and Lounging on the Beach

Twenty years of study and schmoozing started a new discipline: cognitive neuroscience.

Not Just Another Ordinary Gay

Don't lose yourself in the hetero humdrum. A culture is at stake.

In Praise of Slaughter

Battles were more straightforward, a legal scholar argues, when they were fought over monarchal territory rather than the ideology of governance.

Teaching Online Is More Than MOOC's

Online teaching can be nuanced and intimate.

Before You Jump on the Bandwagon....

Three questions all colleges should ask themselves before they start offering massive open online courses.

The Future Is Now, and Has Been for Years

MOOC's aren't really that new. They're the next phase of a revolution fostered by traditional, bricks-and-mortar higher education.

Teaching to the World From Central New Jersey

A Princeton professor is won over by his first experience with a MOOC.

Into the Future With MOOC's

The breakup of traditional colleges' monopoly on academic credit is coming.

Colleges Need Clear, Functional Goals

"Simply put, higher education needs to provide more reasons for students to enroll and remain in class."

Where Is the Outrage Over Penn State Scandal?

"Where are the press conferences about better protection and abuse of power, as opposed to press conferences about football?"

Credit Where It's Due at Emory U.

"If African-American studies at Emory be a house, Professor Byrd would have to be the contractor who came in to give the building a facelift."

In Search of Hard Data on Nonacademic Careers

Anecdotes about alternative jobs for Ph.D.'s proliferate because data are in short supply.