From the issue dated May 2, 2003
SPECIAL REPORT
QUALIFIED ENTHUSIASM
The Chronicle's first Survey of Public Opinion on Higher Education shows that the American people's faith in the value of colleges remains strong, despite misgivings about some longstanding practices.
- DILEMMA: Governors and business leaders want public colleges to concentrate on research that will help create jobs. But the public says the colleges should emphasize undergraduate teaching.
- COMPARISON SHOPPING: Perceptions of quality turn students' heads toward certain campuses. But price often determines their final choices.
- SKEPTICAL ABOUT SPORTS: A majority of Americans believes that colleges are compromising their most important goals and standards for the sake of success in athletics programs.
- ANALYSIS: An essay on the survey's results, by Gordon Davies, a senior adviser to the Education Commission of the States.
- POLL DATA: Attitudes about higher education and views on higher education
THE FACULTY
TENURED? TOUGH LUCK
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, faced with cuts in state funds, is eliminating the jobs of eight museum-research professors.
ART AND SCIENCE
Carl Djerassi, a playwright, chemist, and inventor of the Pill, helped put on his play, Oxygen, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
SOJOURNING AMONG SCIENTISTS
Surprised by the collegiality and openness of physicists, Leonard Cassuto, an English professor at Fordham University, wonders how the humanities became so unapproachable.
ANOTHER YEAR IN LIMBO
It's hard to be upbeat when you still don't have a tenure-track position, writes a doctoral student in English at a leading research institution.
DEALING WITH NASTY STUDENTS, PART II
Calling security is one way to establish authority in the classroom. Jill Carroll, our adjunct columnist, offers some less extreme options.
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- QUESTIONABLE BONUSES: A plan to offer incentives to University of Southern Mississippi professors who earn research grants has some faculty members annoyed.
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- A GRAVE PROBLEM: The University of New England has a surplus of donated cadavers for its anatomy students.
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- FREUDIAN SLIP-UP: A sculpture at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania has drawn fire for portraying the father of psychology with a gun to his nose.
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- PEER REVIEW: Tensions are running high at two-year-old Soka University of America, where about one quarter of its original professors have left. ... The historian David Levering Lewis is leaving Rutgers University at New Brunswick for New York University.
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- SYLLABUS: At the University of Dayton, students in one course take an "inner journey" toward an understanding of myth, the Bible, and literature.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
CHOOSING EUGENICS
Mandatory genetic screening on Cyprus has sharply reduced the number of babies born with a horrific disease. If Cypriots strongly support the program, what could be wrong with it?
A NEW LOOK AT 'THE CULTURAL TURN'
We need less sloganeering about multiculturalism and theory and more analyses of how culture influences the human condition, writes Peter N. Stearns, provost and vice president for academic affairs at George Mason University.
'OWN YOUR WORDS'
The best defense against plagiarism is having a clear sense of what it is -- and isn't -- and knowing how to develop your own voice, writes Maurice Isserman, a professor of history at Hamilton College.
AN ENDANGERED ACT
Thirty years after it became law, the controversial measure to protect the country's biodiversity faces intense scrutiny, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large.
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- DOODLES OF LIFE: Scientists at a 50th-anniversary celebration of the discovery of DNA's structure produced sketches showing their vision of the genetic material.
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- VERBATIM: Two scholars say American education will never succeed until teachers are considered true professionals.
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- WHO KNEW? Skipper caterpillars fling their excrement away from their nests to thwart invasions by their enemies. ... Car experts use the same holistic approach to look at cars that people use to look at faces. ... Children have a stronger preference for sour foods than adults do. ... Mutations may protect black cats from infections.
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- HOT TYPE: The American Political Science Association's new journal, Perspectives on Politics, tries to bring the field's methodological camps under one roof, while new studies purport to show methodological bias in the association's other major journals.
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- NOTA BENE: For Hasidic Jews, writes Jan Feldman in Lubavitchers as Citizens, freedom is achieved in the fulfillment of one's responsibility to God and the community.
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- WHAT THEY'RE READING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: a list of best-selling books.
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
A LOOMING 'OR ELSE'
The chairman of the Congressional panel with jurisdiction over higher education wants to control tuition by penalizing colleges that raise their prices beyond a certain point.
HELP FOR STUDENTS
State spending on financial aid in 2001-2 increased despite the recession and budget cuts, a survey found.
DILEMMA
Governors and business leaders want public colleges to concentrate on research that will help create jobs. But the public says the colleges should emphasize undergraduate teaching.
VOLUNTARY PREFERENCES
Ethnic and racial diversity can have social value, but Michigan-style affirmative action is wrong for public colleges, writes Peter H. Schuck, a professor at Yale Law School.
SINISTER MYTH
Whatever the aims of the war in Iraq, it was not a result of a conspiracy of powerful Jewish Americans in the service of Israel, writes Robert J. Lieber, a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University.
AN ENDANGERED ACT
Thirty years after it became law, the controversial measure to protect the country's biodiversity faces intense scrutiny, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large.
WHO WILL PAY?
People value higher education, but they don't think it needs more financial support. What can institutions do in these tough economic times? asks Gordon Davies, a senior adviser to the Education Commission of the States.
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- CLASS SURVIVES: The governor of Kansas vetoed a budget provision that would have cut $3.1-million in state funds to the University of Kansas because of its use of "obscene" materials in a course on human sexuality.
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- DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT: Two finalists were named to become the president of Colorado State University, and the governor's choice was not one of them.
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- ARGUING OVER LOAN LIMITS: Half the students who borrow privately do so without having reached the federal-loans ceiling, an advocacy group says.
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- IT'S WHAT YOU KNOW: A report being sent to every American high school outlines what college freshmen need to have learned to succeed.
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- ERIC'S MAKEOVER: A proposal by the U.S. Department of Education would drastically restructure the Educational Resources Information Center, eliminating its 16 clearinghouses and altering the content of the database.
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- COVERING ACCRUED INTEREST: Four college associations asked the U.S. Education Department to expand financial relief for student-loan borrowers serving in the military.
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- SECURITY R&D: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeks $10-million for fellowships and university programs, the head of its science-and-technology division said.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
GOING IT ON THEIR OWN
More colleges are turning to "self insurance" to deal with the rising costs of health-care coverage.
ADJUSTING TO A NEW PRESIDENT
Will the vice presidents keep their jobs? Will they even want to? Jean Dowdall, vice president of an executive search firm, gives an insider's view.
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- TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: After a last-ditch fund-raising effort fell short, the trustees of William Tyndale College are considering their options, which include merging with other institutions and selling off its campus to developers.
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- CROPPED OUT: An Iowa judge dismissed a lawsuit by a farmer who wanted either to continue leasing land bequeathed to the University of Iowa Foundation, or to be compensated for his lost income.
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- ROYALTY BATTLE: Genentech sued Columbia University over a new patent that the biotechnology company says resembles a lucrative patent that expired.
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- STEPPING DOWN: Morris Brown College's leader resigned after the institution lost its appeal for accreditation.
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- FISCAL QUAGMIRE: The president of the University of Idaho stepped down over the mounting expense of a building project.
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- RISKY VENTURES? Companies that focus on investing in privately held businesses have cut back on their spending in for-profit distance education.
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- A CHART DEPICTS pension money in the stock market.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
CUSTOMIZING ADMISSIONS -- ONLINE
The University of Dayton is among a growing number of colleges using personalized Web sites to attract students.
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- 'MARGINAL' DIFFERENCES: A market-research firm that surveyed 500 college-bound high-school students contends that a racially based digital divide no longer exists. But the researchers think the gap probably remains among students who are not headed for college.
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- PUNISHMENTS 'FIT THE CRIME': The U.S. Naval Academy has punished 85 students who allegedly downloaded copyrighted movies and songs through the institution's Internet connection.
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- RISKY VENTURES? Companies that focus on investing in privately held businesses have cut back on their spending in for-profit distance education.
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- 'IMMINENT RISK':
A Georgia judge has temporarily forbidden two college students to discuss security weaknesses in a college debit-card system.
STUDENTS
COMPARISON SHOPPING
Perceptions of quality turn students' heads toward certain campuses. But price often determines their final choices.
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- AWARD TO THE WISE? If you need money to attend college, try applying for scholarships given to top skateboarders, Ayn Rand fans, or duct-tape fashionmongers.
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- ARGUING OVER LOAN LIMITS: Half the students who borrow privately do so without having reached the federal-loans ceiling, an advocacy group says.
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- IT'S WHAT YOU KNOW: A report being sent to every American high school outlines what college freshmen need to have learned to succeed.
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- COVERING ACCRUED INTEREST: Four college associations asked the U.S. Education Department to expand financial relief for student-loan borrowers serving in the military.
ATHLETICS
COMPROMISING ACADEMICS?
Most Americans believe that colleges drop standards for athletes, a Chronicle survey shows.
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- TEAM-DUMPING: Three Division I-A universities announced major reductions in men's sports to save money and to meet gender-equity goals.
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- TOUGHER STANDARD: The NCAA will require more high-school core courses for first-year athletes to be eligible for college competition.
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- BONNIES CLEAN HOUSE: Five weeks after its president departed because of a men's basketball scandal, St. Bonaventure University fired the head coach and announced the resignations of an assistant coach and the athletics director.
INTERNATIONAL
DRINKING IN JAPAN
Highly structured parties organized by college students and professors help them to get to know each other.
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- ANTIQUITIES SEARCH: Scholars are aiding in the effort to retrieve the artifacts stolen from Iraq's National Museum.
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- WORLD BEAT: The National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore has fired a British researcher after finding he had jeopardized the safety of patients during research. ... A Tokyo court has sentenced a university administrator for illegally asking for donations from the parents of prospective students at the medical school.
THE CHRONICLE REVIEW
SOJOURNING AMONG SCIENTISTS
Surprised by the collegiality and openness of physicists, Leonard Cassuto, an English professor at Fordham University, wonders how the humanities became so unapproachable.
A NEW LOOK AT 'THE CULTURAL TURN'
We need less sloganeering about multiculturalism and theory and more analyses of how culture influences the human condition, writes Peter N. Stearns, provost and vice president for academic affairs at George Mason University.
VOLUNTARY PREFERENCES
Ethnic and racial diversity can have social value, but Michigan-style affirmative action is wrong for public colleges, writes Peter H. Schuck, a professor at Yale Law School.
'OWN YOUR WORDS'
The best defense against plagiarism is having a clear sense of what it is -- and isn't -- and knowing how to develop your own voice, writes Maurice Isserman, a professor of history at Hamilton College.
SINISTER MYTH
Whatever the aims of the war in Iraq, it was not a result of a conspiracy of powerful Jewish Americans in the service of Israel, writes Robert J. Lieber, a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University.
AN ENDANGERED ACT
Thirty years after it became law, the controversial measure to protect the country's biodiversity faces intense scrutiny, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large.
ARCHETYPAL STILLNESS
The photographer Geleve Grice has preserved the life of Arkansas communities.
WHO WILL PAY?
People value higher education, but they don't think it needs more financial support. What can institutions do in these tough economic times? asks Gordon Davies, a senior adviser to the Education Commission of the States.
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- DECONSTRUCT THIS: Was the looting in Iraq the "untidy" consequence of regime change, the expression of a long-suppressed rage, or something more complicated?
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- MELANGE: Selections from recent books of interest to academe.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CAREER NETWORK
ADJUSTING TO A NEW PRESIDENT
Will the vice presidents keep their jobs? Will they even want to? Jean Dowdall, vice president of an executive search firm, gives an insider's view.
ANOTHER YEAR IN LIMBO
It's hard to be upbeat when you still don't have a tenure-track position, writes a doctoral student in English at a leading research institution.
DEALING WITH NASTY STUDENTS, PART II
Calling security is one way to establish authority in the classroom. Jill Carroll, our adjunct columnist, offers some less extreme options.
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- ACADEMIC JOB FORUM: A discussion forum on the job search in higher education.
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- DETAILS OF AVAILABLE POSTS, including teaching and research positions in higher education, administrative and executive jobs, and openings outside academe
GAZETTE
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