LOOK WHO'S TALKING
Seeking to counter the spread of "mallspeak," colleges across academe are establishing programs to teach students how to communicate. But some critics question the approach: A16

JOBS AT RISK AT MORRIS BROWN
More than a third of the college's 98 full-time faculty members have been notified that a campus committee has recommended they be fired, forced to retire, or placed on probation: A18

BARGAINING RIGHTS FOR TA'S
The University of California, in a reversal of its position, announced that it would recognize a union on the Los Angeles campus if the group won an organizing vote: A18

'WHERE ARE YOU FROM?'
Cheryl Savageau, a visiting professor of Native American studies at the University of New Mexico, invokes American Indians' reverence for place to teach students about recognizing and expressing their own identities: B2

THE HUMANITIES, TRIUMPHANT
Today's consensus of despair about the liberal arts serves only to feed upon itself, argues Robert Weisbuch, who offers six paths out of the "culture of losers." The author, a professor of English on leave from the University of Michigan, is president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation: B4

AFTER MONTHS of negotiations, California State University officials imposed a controversial contract on faculty members, who were additionally irked by comments about their work habits by the system's chancellor: A16

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY students and professors rallied this month to demand that the institution allow a labor union to represent the rights of all graduate workers: A12

GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS and their union reached a tentative agreement with officials at the University of Michigan on a three-year contract: A14

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the California State University System approved the controversial "Cornerstones" plan, to improve academic quality and student access: A45

PEER REVIEW: A60

• Northeastern University is hoping to lure a historian of Japan from the University of California at Berkeley to chair its history department.

• Yale University is in search of senior scholars for its new International Center for Finance.

COMPARING MYTHS
Wendy Doniger, a professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago, finds that legends from various cultures tell similar stories, especially about women: A19

• How one book by Ms. Doniger on mythological studies became a quartet: A19

DEFENDING CHILDREN OF DIVORCE
Mary Ann Mason, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, argues that joint-custody arrangements benefit the parents -- especially the father -- more than they do the child: A14

WHOSE WORDS ARE THESE
Robert Frost's students learned about writing as a function of metaphor, analogical thinking, and passion, says Jay Parini, a professor of English at Middlebury College: B6

THE VALUE OF 'INSIDER' RESEARCH
Nancy Ramsey, a scholar of Wicca, a witch, and a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, urges academics to be more supportive of researchers who study groups to which they belong: B8

A TEAM OF BIOLOGISTS from the University of Barcelona and the Natural History Museum, in London, concluded that an unusual group of flatworms is the oldest living ancestor of all animals possessing bilateral symmetry: A20

A GENETIC ANALYSIS has cast doubt on a theory that traces the origins of modern human beings to Africa: A24

AN EQUAL DIVISION of household chores tends to reduce marital anxiety, according to a Brown University researcher: A24

SCIENTISTS HAVE FOUND a powerful anti-AIDS agent in tears and saliva: A24

RESEARCHERS at the University of Michigan have found high educational value in racial diversity on college campuses: A51

BIOLOGISTS at Washington University have reintroduced wood frogs to a local pond, where they had not been seen since 1911: A14

HOT TYPE: A24

• American geographers are debating the future of the discipline's two most-prominent journals, which have been proposed to be merged.

• A new book, The American Mayor, provides the results of a poll of historians on the best and worst big-city leaders in U.S. history.

NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS: A26-29

• Nota Bene: Black '47 and Beyond: The Great Irish Famine in History, Economy, and Memory, by Cormac O Grada, a professor of economics at University College, Dublin. The book is published by Princeton University Press.

THE NAMES of U.S. graduate students who received fellowships under the Fulbright Program have been announced: A61-65

COMPUTING AT BLACK COLLEGES
In the past few years, three groups have been started to help historically black institutions improve their technology through joint purchases, shared training, and other projects: A31

ON-LINE HARASSMENT
A Vermont civil-rights agency has faulted Goddard College for its handling of a complaint by an alumna over sexually explicit material she says she received from an employee: A33

TECHNOLOGY 'COOKBOOK'
A guide is designed to help university administrators and faculty members who are perplexed at how to use Internet videoconferencing: A34

STUDENTS SHOWED OFF high-technology inventions at a recent event, sponsored by the Lemelson Foundation, at the Smithsonian Institution: A31

SUPPORTERS of a $366-million computing-research project proposed by the White House made their pitch to a House of Representatives subcommittee last week: A34

A WORLD-WIDE WEB SITE devoted to digital storytelling fosters the traditional with technology: A37

FIVE INTERNET RESOURCES ON LINE, three new videos on information technology, and one other resource on disk: A37

THREAT TO A GRANT PROGRAM?
Supporters of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education say members of Congress are attempting to use it for pork-barrel politics: A39

TOUGHER ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a campaign focused on colleges in New England; some may face fines, and all will be offered assistance in complying with the law: A42

PENNSYLVANIA APPROVES U. OF PHOENIX
Many college officials were surprised to learn that the state had agreed to let the fast-growing chain of proprietary institutions open campuses there: A43

'CHARTER' COLLEGES
The Governor of Massachusetts, A. Paul Cellucci, has proposed changes that would allow some public institutions to drop tenure and be free of most state regulations: A43

DOLING OUT TOBACCO MONEY
Many states, in planning uses for the funds gained from legal settlements with cigarette makers, are aiming to spend more on public health than on higher education: A44

VICTORY FOR PUBLIC BLACK COLLEGES
A federal judge has dismissed a portion of a lawsuit that challenged the way Georgia operates three of its universities: A45

SCIENTISTS CRYING WOLF
As federal support for academic research and development has grown, complaints from those in the sciences begin to ring hollow, writes Daniel S. Greenberg, a science journalist and visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University: A72

MENTALLY ILL RESEARCH SUBJECTS
Academe should support new recommendations aimed at protecting potential research subjects who are impaired and can't give informed consent, writes R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison: B9

OKLAHOMA LAWMAKERS, spurred by a joke, voted to retain their power to set tuitions at state universities: A39

QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN RAISED about whether it is proper for the chairman of the University System of Maryland's Board of Regents to also serve as a lobbyist for contractors doing business with the state: A39

TEACHING-HOSPITAL OFFICIALS were relieved when a federal commission to overhaul the Medicare program reached an impasse, but its proposal on funds for graduate medical education is not dead: A40

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT has accused the University of Chicago's hospital of purposely overbilling Medicare and Medicaid: A42

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES of the California State University System approved the controversial "Cornerstones" plan, to improve academic quality and student access: A45

BLACK APPLICANTS were down 41 per cent this year at the University of Washington Law School, compared with their number last year: A45

SUPPORTERS of a $366-million computing-research project proposed by the White House made their pitch to a House of Representatives subcommittee last week: A34

CONTROLLING THE PURSE STRINGS
Leaders of the University of South Alabama and its foundation are in a standoff over management of the endowment's assets: A47

LABOR STANDARDS FOR COLLEGE APPAREL
Student protesters have rejected as inadequate a new effort to insure the fair treatment of workers who produce clothing that bears institutions' names or logos: A48

AFFORDABILITY VS. QUALITY
Belmont University, which like most other private institutions is heavily dependent on tuition revenue, strives to contain costs without scrimping on its academic program: A51

• At many private colleges, tuition increases continue to outpace inflation: A52

FLORIDA REGENTS have decided that state colleges and schools may be named after only those donors of "exemplary" character and integrity: A47

LEXINGTON BAPTIST COLLEGE, in Kentucky, will close in May: A47

SIX COLLEGES have completed fund-raising campaigns: A49

WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY has lent a flintlock rifle, believed to have been used to execute a revered member of the Cherokee tribe, to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian: A12

IMPERIAL VALLEY COLLEGE has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a sexual-harassment accusation made against its president: A14

TWO GRAPHS depict trends in faculty pay and the cost of living and pension money invested in the stock market, and a table shows the median salaries of chief executives and academic officers: A50

FOUNDATION GRANTS; gifts and bequests: A50

AFFORDABILITY VS. QUALITY
Belmont University, which like most other private institutions is heavily dependent on tuition revenue, strives to contain costs without scrimping on its academic program: A51

• At many private colleges, tuition increases continue to outpace inflation: A52

RESEARCHERS at the University of Michigan have found high educational value in racial diversity on college campuses: A51

A STUDENT has filed a free-speech lawsuit against the University of California at San Diego for punishing him for posting a sign in his dormitory window that bore a four-letter word: A51

AT FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE, students counter hate messages in graffiti by celebrating diversity: A12

WHAT THEY'RE READING on college campuses: a list of best-selling books: A52

THE WOES OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is trying to assure the future of the lucrative sport, which faces growing criticism over the way players are recruited -- and over how few of them graduate: A53

ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR THE NCAA
A federal judge refused to stay his decision to strike down a rule requiring prospective athletes to achieve minimum test scores: A56

THE REMAINING MEMBERS of the Western Athletic Conference are debating the league's future: A53

STOPPING PAKISTANI VIOLENCE
The University of Karachi dealt with politically motivated attacks on students by banning extracurricular activities and calling in armed guards -- but rivalries persist: A57

FALLOUT FROM SPY SCANDAL
Educators fear that scientific exchanges between the United States and China could be hindered in the wake of charges that nuclear-weapon designs were pilfered from Los Alamos National Laboratory: A59

BRITAIN HAS ANNOUNCED a campaign to lure more Australian students to its shores: A57

UGANDA'S Makerere University has expelled the country's Minister of Education, who was studying for an M.B.A., because he lacked a bachelor's degree: A57

THE NATIONAL AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY of Mexico's governing board voted to raise tuition for the first time in 51 years: A58

SCIENTISTS CRYING WOLF
As federal support for academic research and development has grown, complaints from those in the sciences begin to ring hollow, writes Daniel S. Greenberg, a science journalist and visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University: A72

THE HUMANITIES, TRIUMPHANT
Today's consensus of despair about the liberal arts serves only to feed upon itself, argues Robert Weisbuch, who offers six paths out of the "culture of losers." The author, a professor of English on leave from the University of Michigan, is president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation: B4

WHOSE WORDS ARE THESE
Robert Frost's students learned about writing as a function of metaphor, analogical thinking, and passion, says Jay Parini, a professor of English at Middlebury College: B6

THE VALUE OF 'INSIDER' RESEARCH
Nancy Ramsey, a scholar of Wicca, a witch, and a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, urges academics to be more supportive of researchers who study groups to which they belong: B8

MENTALLY ILL RESEARCH SUBJECTS
Academe should support new recommendations aimed at protecting potential research subjects who are impaired and can't give informed consent, writes R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and medical ethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison: B9

MARGINALIA: A12

• The Vietnam War still has many lessons to teach scholars and students: B3

• College counseling in high schools: B11

• Proposed budget for academic exchanges: B11

• When films become follies: B11

• Rewriting history in India: B11

'VIGOROUS KINKS AND QUIRKS'
The 27th Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition is on display at four galleries in Peoria, Ill.: B88

• APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS on U.S. campuses.

• DEATHS of people in academe.

• COMING EVENTS: conferences, workshops, and seminars.

• DEADLINES for fellowships, grants, the submission of papers, and more.

DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe.