Free Highlights

SAWDUST MEMORIES

At the annual Spring Meet for student lumberjacks and jills, Ivy Leaguers compete against community-college choppers, and the chips fly. Teresa Troy (above left), of Paul Smith's College, cheers on Jacqueline June in the team bow-saw event. Logging camps once encouraged similar competitions to raise production. (Photograph by Don Clark)

Selected Articles (For Chronicle Subscribers)

MATCHING STRATEGY: The California Community Colleges will receive up to $50-million from a philanthropy for scholarships at the system's 109 colleges.

RELIEF ON THE BOTTOM LINE: Despite economic woes, many states have spared higher education, including community colleges, from major budget cuts.

DUELING OPINIONS: In a memo that runs counter to one from the lawyer for North Carolina's community-college system, a state legal official has urged the colleges to limit their enrollment of illegal immigrants.

BUDGET-BASED DECISION: USA Today is ending its programs recognizing academic excellence among students at two-year and four-year colleges.

Community-College Supplement

DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS: Two competing visions of education help explain the tension between jobs and ideas that all community colleges grapple with, writes M. Garrett Bauman.

NEW MATH: Some colleges are trying new ways to move students more quickly and smoothly through remedial math.

CAMPUS TREASURE: Instructors at City College of San Francisco make the college's Diego Rivera mural an everyday part of the curriculum.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK: In rural areas, arts programs at colleges provide a rich diet for culture-starved residents.

12 TEACHING TIPS: Community-college instructors offer ideas for the classroom.

GOOD CITIZENSHIP: Most community-college leaders give little thought to the role their colleges play in their communities, George B. Vaughan says.

NONTRADITIONAL LEARNERS: Colleges are not keeping up with changes in the way adults pursue their education, says Charlene R. Nunley.

SCARCE INFORMATION: Students need to know much more about how to transfer to four-year institutions, Stephen J. Handel writes.

BOILING POINT: Bob Blaisdell reflects on the day he lost it in front of his students.

A SPECIAL ROLE: Rural community colleges are meeting the needs of a changing and increasingly diverse population, Stephen G. Katsinas says.

INFLUENCE OVERSEAS: Community colleges can play an important role in fostering world peace, writes David J. Smith.

CLASSROOM OBSESSIONS: Charlotte Laws says that too many instructors emphasize grades and attendance, to the detriment of creativity and responsibility.

CHALLENGES OF POVERTY: Kathleen Sheerin DeVore says it is her job to help students complete their assignments amid the chaos of their lives.

ATTENTION BILLIONAIRES: Big donors should consider giving to community colleges if they really want to help the nation's students, writes Catherine Stukel.