Students Get Savvier About Textbook Buying, When They Buy at All

The Chronicle talked with students and found that having more choices in how to get books hasn't solved the main problem: cost.

Don't Call Them Textbooks

Publishers' latest digital products may deserve a category of their own.

For Many Students, Print Is Still King

They still want real books, publishers and professors say, even as digital products proliferate.

Can Textbooks Ever Really Be Free?

Many agree that making books free for college students is a good idea. But nobody's found a great way to do it.

Required Texts? Really?

Some students will go to great lengths to avoid shelling out for a new textbook.

Freshman Survey: This Year, Even More Focused on Jobs

A greater percentage of freshmen than ever before said a prospective career was a crucial reason to go to college, according to an annual survey by UCLA's Higher Education...

'Bill of Rights' Seeks to Protect Students' Interests as Online Learning Expands

The document's authors want to make sure that the rapid rise of MOOCs and other digital tools does not obscure traditional obligations to students.

The Document: 'A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age'

In an Israeli Desert, a Modest Effort to Build an Environment for Peace

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is a small place with big ambitions.

As Temperatures Keep Rising, 'Plan B' Gets a Harder Look

Some scientists say we shouldn't try to geoengineer the earth's climate; others say we can't afford not to.

Challenges Ahead for the U. of California

Mark Yudof is stepping down in August. His successor may face no less than a major rethinking of the breadth and scope of the 10-campus system.

Report Calls for Renewed Focus on Raising College-Completion Rates

A yearlong effort by the National Commission on Higher Education Attainment identifies innovative repairs for colleges' leaky pipelines.

A Historian Bids Farewell to Her Past

Nell Irvin Painter wrote seven groundbreaking books about African-American history and taught at Princeton for 17 years. Now she's pursuing a different passion.

Expert in Diplomacy to Take On Task of Being a College's First Provost

Peter Uvin will assume the new role at Amherst College, and one of his responsibilities will be defining just what a provost at such a liberal-arts institution does.

Longtime Dean Sees Ever-Expanding Role for Nurses With Advanced Degrees

Colleen Conway-Welch, who is retiring from Vanderbilt's School of Nursing, predicts that nurses will soon take over much of the work of primary-care doctors.

U. of Pennsylvania to Get New Dean of Arts and Sciences; Lorrie Moore to Move to Vanderbilt

The new dean is Steven J. Fluharty, senior vice provost for research and a professor at Penn. Read about that and other job-related news.

A Rice U. Student Battles the Teaching of Creationism

Zack Kopplin started his fight in high school, after passage of the Louisiana Science Education Act.

U. of Michigan Master's Student Becomes First 'Wikipedian in Residence' at Presidential Library

Michael Barera parlayed his volunteer editing of Wkipedia into an internship.

Rocker/Academic Leads New Institute for Popular Music at U. of Rochester

John Covach, the institute's founding director, has worked hard to give the study of popular music the same prestige as the study of classical music.

Steven Muller, Former President of Johns Hopkins, Dies at 85; Other Deaths

Steven Muller led the university from 1972 to 1990, during which time he expanded its scope and raised hundreds of millions of dollars.

The End of Feminism?

New works on women lack the fire of Betty Friedan. They don't rage, they fizzle.

All Guns Are Not Created Equal

The writers of the Second Amendment didn't think so, and neither should we.

Anti-Judaism as a Critical Theory

Hostility to Judaism is not just a product of extreme ideologies. It’s rooted in the power and politics of Western tradition.

When Beauty Is Not Truth

Physicists are drawn to elegant, symmetrical theories, and many have turned out to be true. But the gleam of the beautiful can blind scientists, a critic argues.

Remembrance of MLA Conventions Past

Another year, another paper, another interview suite. Until the last one.

Too Old to Rock and Roll?

An ethnography of former rock fans explores how they've aged.

The Pre-Digital Art of Crafting Notes

What Are Low-Ranked Graduate Programs Good For?

Too many Ph.D. programs are too focused on what's going on above them.

Don't Reform Graduate Education in a Vacuum

Proposals to rethink the doctoral curriculum must involve Ph.D.'s who have left academe.

An Undisciplined Report on the Teaching of History

The National Association of Scholars' take on current historiography does not contribute to an informed debate.

The Obsession With Social History

The report's main arguments are largely true, says a historian who taught for 40 years at the University of Texas.

College Rankings: a Guide to Nowhere

Organizations that rank colleges need more-meaningful measures that show diversity, job placement, faculty membership in national academies, and student engagement.

We Know You Can Read. So Can We.

In which I sit through a conference panel and do not obtain enlightenment.