From the issue dated June 8, 2001
THE FACULTY
DOWNFALL OF A PROFESSOR
Colleagues don't understand how a noted legal scholar at Wayne State University ended up as a drug mule.
THE GATES TO GRADUATE EDUCATION
The LSAT, GRE, and MCAT, like the SAT I, show little validity as predictors of performance, and they hinder the access of many minority students to graduate and professional schools, writes Peter Sacks, the author of Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It.
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- DEPARTMENTAL FEUD: The University of Iowa reprimanded a prominent professor for accusing two colleagues of scientific fraud.
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- BOOTED IN BUFFALO: The head of the English department at a State University of New York campus lost her position for refusing to discipline teaching assistants suspected of staging a grade strike.
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- EMPTY PIPELINE: A study documents the lack of diversity in leading chemistry departments.
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- GENDER BIAS: A federal jury awarded $453,460 to a woman who filed a gender-bias lawsuit after being denied tenure at the University of Georgia.
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- ETHICS IN QUESTION: A professor once accused of fabricating a news article as a reporter has declined an offer to become a dean at Columbia College Chicago.
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- PEER REVIEW: Faculty members at McNeese State University are steaming over the choice of an assistant professor as provost, calling her unqualified. ... A St. Bonaventure University sociology professor whose tenure was revoked has won vindication.
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- SYLLABUS: A course at the Rochester Institute of Technology explores surprising intersections of mathematics and poetry.
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- PROMOTING ONLINE COURSES: The University of Vermont may offer copyright protection to faculty and staff members who contribute material.
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- ROUGH AND READY: A reality-based television show produced by Britain's Open University pits five scientists against nature on a gorgeous desert island.
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- THE UNIONIZATION LABEL: The American Studies Association's annual meeting is slated for a hotel involved in an 18-year labor dispute.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
DRAWING THE LINES
A new book explores the evolution of gerrymandering, examining the technologies that make it more sophisticated today.
FOR THE BIRDS
New research explains why some female collared flycatchers purposely mate with males of a different species.
ENVISIONING OPTICAL NETWORKS
Researchers at the University of California at Davis are working on systems that could offer greatly increased speed for the transfer of huge amounts of data.
IDENTITY ON TRIAL
A new study of a sensational annulment proceeding highlights views on race, class, and sexuality in 1920's America, write Heidi Ardizzone, a visiting assistant professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, and Earl Lewis, dean of graduate studies at the University of Michigan.
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- VERBATIM: Brian Fagan, an archaeology professor who wrote The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850, talks about how advances in climatology have increased the understanding of events in Western civilization.
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- NOTA BENE: In Sanity and Sanctity: Mental Health Work Among the Ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem, David Greenberg and Eliezer Witztum describe their unusual treatments for mentally ill residents of the Mea Shearim neighborhood.
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- HOT TYPE: A scholar finds gender bias in the Dewey Decimal System. ... In Masculine Domination, Pierre Bourdieu argues that gender distinctions are a form of "symbolic violence."
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
ANOTHER SIDE TO DESEGREGATION
As states push historically black public colleges to do more to recruit white students, some educators see a double standard.
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WINS A ROUND
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal of a decision that cited the Bakke opinion to uphold the use of racial preferences by public colleges.
THE FINAL TAX BILL
Colleges praise many provisions of the legislation passed by Congress, but fear the impact of the measure on federal spending.
DRAWING THE LINES
A new book explores the evolution of gerrymandering, examining the technologies that make it more sophisticated today.
MAKING HISTORY
Efforts to improve the teaching of American history in public schools are enjoying a surge of bipartisan support. Let's make sure lawmakers understand that colleges and universities are crucial to that work, writes Arnita Jones, executive director of the American Historical Association.
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- EXPANDED ACCESS: A bill passed by Texas lawmakers would allow any qualified graduate of a high school in the state, including undocumented immigrants, to receive the in-state tuition rate at a public college.
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- MORE ON MERIT: A legislative committee in Louisiana approved seven bills that would expand a college-scholarship program with modest academic standards.
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- LIMITING INCENTIVES: The U.S. Education Department may fine two universities for payments made to recruiters.
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- BIOETHICS DISPUTE: Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, criticized the Bush administration for ordering National Institutes of Health officials to revise statements on stem-cell research.
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- FUELING THE DEBATE: The presidents of 42 colleges and universities urged President Bush to revise his energy policy to place more emphasis on conservation and alternatives to oil, gas, and coal.
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- NO SPECIAL ACCOMMODATION: The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a decision that the Americans With Disabilities Act does not entitle a medical student with a reading and writing impairment to extra time on a medical-licensing test.
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- LESS RED TAPE: To reduce paperwork in federal student-aid programs, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon is asking colleges and loan providers to identify federal regulations that they find unnecessary or overly burdensome.
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- NEW BILLS IN CONGRESS
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
TRANSFER TROUBLE
When regionally accredited colleges won't accept academic credits earned at career colleges, is the decision a function of unfair bias or institutional prerogative?
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- LONESOME SHOVE: After a dispute with Midwestern State University, in Texas, the prize-winning writer Larry McMurtry is moving a literature center that bears his name off campus.
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- WINING AND DINING: Northwest College, a two-year institution in Wyoming, has rescinded a campus ban on alcohol for fund-raising events.
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- DWI AND DEPARTED: The president of Roger Williams University quit after he was arrested and charged with drunken driving.
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- MORE PINK SLIPS: The University of St. Thomas, in Minnesota, announced a second round of staff layoffs, in an effort to reduce its budget by $9-million.
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- LIMITING INCENTIVES: The U.S. Education Department may fine two universities for payments made to recruiters.
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- FUND-RAISING SUCCESS: The United Negro College Fund reached $70-million in a campaign to improve technology at member institutions.
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- FOUNDATION GRANTS; GIFTS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ENVISIONING OPTICAL NETWORKS
Researchers at the University of California at Davis are working on systems that could offer greatly increased speed for the transfer of huge amounts of data.
- SEEING IS BELIEVING: While not rushing to buy, colleges are watching with interest as optical-network devices hit the market.
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- GOT E-LEARNING? A group of virtual universities is considering a national advertising campaign to promote online education.
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- 'YOU'VE GOT BOOKS': Virginia Commonwealth University's library uses e-mail to let people know about new books and other materials.
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- FUND-RAISING SUCCESS: The United Negro College Fund reached $70-million in a campaign to improve technology at member institutions.
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- TOO MUCH INFORMATION: In the wake of stalking incidents, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor discontinued an online people-finding service.
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- PROMOTING ONLINE COURSES: The University of Vermont may offer copyright protection to faculty and staff members who contribute material.
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- TRADEMARK DISPUTE: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill filed suit against a sexually explicit Web site.
STUDENTS
NEW SCRUTINY FOR GREEK SYSTEMS
Incidents involving a fraternity at Dartmouth College and sororities at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa have sparked debates about student culture at the two institutions.
QUESTIONS OF JUSTICE
Some student protests are more focused and rational than others, as are some responses by administrators, writes Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.
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- TOO MUCH INFORMATION: In the wake of stalking incidents, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor discontinued an online people-finding service.
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- MASCOT WATCH: Reports on symbols under fire at four colleges and universities.
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- BOUNCING 101: Three colleges in the vicinity of Salt Lake City are training students to serve as security officials at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
ATHLETICS
GENDER INEQUITY
A survey shows that proportionally fewer women than ever before are in the coaching ranks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I.
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- DRAWING THE LINE: The National Collegiate Athletic Association is considering a restructuring of Division I in a way that could result in the demotion of some colleges.
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- PEOPLE IN ATHLETICS
INTERNATIONAL
SPREADING THE WORDS
Defying the Cuban government's control of information, dissidents have opened dozens of independent libraries to bring books from the outside world to students, scholars, and other citizens.
BURNING THE RIBBONS
At Portugal's University of Coimbra, a week of festivities before finals includes merrymaking, drinking, and some unusual rituals.
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- WORLD BEAT: Prominent African educators gathered in Accra, Ghana, to promote efforts to revitalize the continent's systems of higher education and research. ... Under a new program, American students who get federal financial aid for college can also get assistance for study abroad.
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- JAPANESE JURISPRUDENCE: American-style law schools are planned in a comprehensive overhaul of the country's legal system.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
KANT OR WON'T?
If you want others to understand the categorical imperative, you should try to understand it, too, writes David P. Barash, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
IDENTITY ON TRIAL
A new study of a sensational annulment proceeding highlights views on race, class, and sexuality in 1920's America, write Heidi Ardizzone, a visiting assistant professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, and Earl Lewis, dean of graduate studies at the University of Michigan.
QUESTIONS OF JUSTICE
Some student protests are more focused and rational than others, as are some responses by administrators, writes Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.
THE GATES TO GRADUATE EDUCATION
The LSAT, GRE, and MCAT, like the SAT I, show little validity as predictors of performance, and they hinder the access of many minority students to graduate and professional schools, writes Peter Sacks, the author of Standardized Minds: The High Price of America's Testing Culture and What We Can Do to Change It.
'LOVE ITALY MORE THAN YOURSELF'
The walls of Rome's former Gestapo headquarters echo with the voices of anti-Fascist martyrs, writes Stanislao G. Pugliese, an associate professor of history at Hofstra University.
THE ADDITION
The fifth installment of a six-part novella about constructing a life, by Roland Merullo, a visiting lecturer in fiction writing at Amherst College.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Evon Streetman's photographic creations are as sophisticated as her student critiques are homegrown.
MAKING HISTORY
Efforts to improve the teaching of American history in public schools are enjoying a surge of bipartisan support. Let's make sure lawmakers understand that colleges and universities are crucial to that work, writes Arnita Jones, executive director of the American Historical Association.
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- MELANGE: Excerpts from selected books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GAZETTE
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DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS,
including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
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