Almost all of us can remember America’s reaction to 9/11. In the days following the horrendous event many defensive initiatives were taken and, since two of the perpetrators were foreign students, one reaction was to restrict access to America’s colleges and universities. Barriers were imposed overseas, visas became difficult if not impossible to get. Personnel in American embassies were frosty, if not outright rude, to inquiries from those interested in enrolling as undergraduate or graduate students. While traveling in China numerous students told me about their visa problems. Later, in a meeting in Beijing with our ambassador he acknowledged the unusual circumstances and the problems they were causing both for his staff and Chinese nationals.

I myself received calls from several Middle Eastern ambassadors to the U.S. asking if I couldn’t be helpful to their constituents. The...

Last week I commented on students’ demands for “more” — greater and immediate access to faculty, more choices in residential living and dining, and better support services. The more students pay in tuition and fees, the greater the sense of entitlement.

But lately I’ve started to be concerned about something students don’t seem to want and that is, to use a vernacular phrase, homework. For the most part, students don’t mind coming to class but what they aren’t too keen on is reading.

My standard is my own freshman year, and the rigors of Columbia College’s core curriculum, the heart of which is Contemporary Civilization. We read continuously for 30 weeks, day and night, weekends included, in order to keep up with the syllabus. Devouring the classics (alas, in translation, though a few classmates, like...

Hillborne College’s Satis library looks very much like the library at Brooklyn College although few people have commented on this striking similarity; certainly Hillborne alumni would disdain the comparison. But John Vincento thought of Brooklyn with an almost physical longing. Although he had to admit that the surroundings in Arborville were aesthetically superior to those around Avenue J, John longed at this moment for a subway rumble under his feet and for cheap good food, specifically sausage and peppers, pastrami on rye, or, to tell the truth, anything without the ubiquitous melted cheddar cheese that covered all warm food in New Hampshire.

John shuddered against the dry, hard cold and turned into the doorway of the library only to realize that it was closed for the homecoming weekend. Nobody could study if there was a home football game — this was a given, a fact of life as part ...

Almost all of us can remember America’s reaction to 9/11. In the days following the horrendous event many defensive initiatives were taken and, since two of the perpetrators were foreign students, one reaction was to restrict access to America’s colleges and universities. Barriers were imposed overseas, visas became difficult if not impossible to get. Personnel in American embassies were frosty, if not outright rude, to inquiries from those interested in enrolling as undergraduate or graduate students. When I was traveling in China, numerous students told me about their visa problems. Later, in a meeting in Beijing with our ambassador, he acknowledged the unusual circumstances and the problems they were causing both for his staff and Chinese nationals.

I myself received calls from several Middle Eastern ambassadors to the U.S. asking if I couldn’t be helpful to their constituents....

Almost all of us can remember America’s reaction to 9/11. In the days following the horrendous event many defensive initiatives were taken and, since two of the perpetrators were foreign students, one reaction was to restrict access to America’s colleges and universities. Barriers were imposed overseas, visas became difficult if not impossible to get. Personnel in American embassies were frosty, if not outright rude, to inquiries from those interested in enrolling as undergraduate or graduate students. When I was traveling in China, numerous students told me about their visa problems. Later, in a meeting in Beijing with our ambassador, he acknowledged the unusual circumstances and the problems they were causing both for his staff and Chinese nationals.

I myself received calls from several Middle Eastern ambassadors to the U.S. asking if I couldn’t be helpful to their constituents....

The Chronicle reported a couple of weeks ago (4/12/08) that there were rumors that the Columbia University might eliminate its electronic publishing program, and that the admirable Kate Wittenberg, who has been the editor most prominently associated with Columbia’s electronic-publication program, would leave the University in June. Jim Neal, Columbia’s able librarian and chief information officer (Columbia was one of the first universities to combine the two positions) refused the Chronicle’s request for comment on the matter. I gather from friends in publishing that no one knows exactly what is happening, but if Columbia is abandoning the field of electronic publishing, those of us who have promoted digital publications should be concerned.

One of Columbia’s first forays into the field was via a Mellon-funded partnership with the American Historical Association, to...

Yes, please: your ideas, additions, twists, red herrings, plot points are all welcome and it would be a delight (expected, but don’t most real delights fall under that heading?) to see what might happen at Hillborne with your writerly, editorial, and readerly suggestions.

Even those who liked Mann’s set of universal truths had a hard time spending time with him. His wet, rheumy eyes fixed on his listener and he had a habit of leaning forward so that his breath, full of Chivas, coffee, and pipe, would be warm on the face. His physical presence was as overbearing as his ideology and as difficult to overlook.

Many theories were offered as the fact and the manner of his death spread through campus. Secretaries laughed and even the occasional dean seemed relieved to be rid of the embarrassingly popular Mann. He was an anachronism, blight on the liberal facade of the grand old institution. He had been known to refer to Hillborne as Mann’s Men’s School when drinking down in Marble Grill, toasting the murals of naked native girls that lined those venerable walls. Maybe somebody cut into him just to show that it was true that Mann had no heart at all, laughed...

cross-posted from howtheuniversityworks.com

McGill grad employees have been picketing since April 8 This is an era of executive license, exemplified by the Bush mob’s trampling on labor rights, habeas corpus, international law, and even the remnant trappings of democracy in the United States and in its various client outposts across the globe.

Now the administration of McGill University seems determined to show its continuing alienation from the Quebec mainstream by hitching up its jeans and defying provincial labor law in a great imitation of George W. Bush’s style of executive bullying.

According to multiple sources, including an official Quebec Labor Department report, and the independent reporting of the Montreal Gazette, McGill...

I want to save everybody some time and effort here. You don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel, do you? For all you Aliza Shvarts wannabes, scan the following list before you start your next art piece. Most of the good ideas have already been taken.

Tying two guns to his temples in a performance piece: André Breton, back in the good old Dada days.

Killing catfish in a museum gallery: Newton Harrison (1960s)

Shooting a dog as a performance piece: Tom Otterness (1980s)

Living in a locker for 5 days: Chris Burden (1960s)

Having yourself shot: Chris Burden (1970s)

Having yourself crucified on a Volkswagen beetle: Chris Burden (1970s)

Crawling in his underwear across broken glass: Chris Burden (1970s)

Making prints with semen: Ed Ruscha (1970s)

Reading a scroll pulled from her vagina: Carolee Schneeman (1970s)

Having sex with a collector recorded on video...