From the issue dated February 27, 2004
THE FACULTY
MAN WITHOUT A DEPARTMENT
A tenured professor at the University of Oklahoma, stripped of his office and most of his courses because of a feud with the administration, ponders his place on the campus.
NEXT-GENERATION CLASSROOM
Professors and students in the health-professions program at Central Michigan University are using state-of-the-art technology in their recently completed building to find new ways of teaching and learning.
NEW PROGRAMS, NEW PROBLEMS
For department heads, revising the curriculum is a lesson in human psychology.
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- SETBACK FOR ORGANIZERS: A federal court told the National Labor Relations Board to reconsider its decision that favored a faculty-organizing effort at LeMoyne-Owen College.
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- $11-MILLION DEAL: The State of Washington agreed to pay $11-million to settle a lawsuit by part-time instructors over community colleges' denial of health-care benefits during summertime.
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- LOWER THE RATES OR ELSE: Medical students threaten to leave Pennsylvania to open their practices if malpractice-insurance premiums continue to rise.
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- PEER REVIEW: The University of Southern California is out to lure philosophers. ... The University of Utah makes overtures to a scholar of Mormon history. ... Robert Bork heads for the University of Richmond's law school.
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- SYLLABUS: "Television Histories as Collective Memory," at Old Dominion University, examines how TV affects viewers' perceptions of reality.
RESEARCH & PUBLISHING
REINVENTING ECSTASY
Evidence that the mood-altering drug causes severe brain damage turned out to be wrong, calling into question the reputations of a researcher and the government agency that paid him.
HIEROGLYPHS FROM THE SKY
A physicist at Caltech built a machine to take pictures of individual snowflakes in their native habitat. The results are crystalline.
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- THE ACADEME AWARDS: Film scholars pick their three favorite college-related movies of all time.
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- TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL: The University of Manitoba's "Professor Popsicle" crosses frozen Lake Winnipeg on skis.
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- CARVING A BETTER CHEDDAR: A professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison has devised a laser technique for slicing cheese.
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- HOT TYPE: In these digital times, the oral tradition still thrives in a variety of disciplines.
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- NOTA BENE: A historian's tale of murder and punishment in pre- and post-Restoration England explores a period of religious turbulence and social change.
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- NEW SCHOLARLY BOOKS
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
DEALING WITH A DEFICIT
A fight is brewing between college lobbyists and the Bush administration over a proposal to change the way Congress sets the maximum Pell Grant each year.
POKING AT EXEMPTIONS
Facing budget deficits in bad economic times, some cities gaze hungrily at a resource that has been largely off limits: property-tax payments from local colleges.
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- MISREQUEST FOR INFORMATION: Without the approval of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an assistant to one member used its letterhead to send 40 colleges a survey about their affirmative-action policies.
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- NO RELIABLE DATA: A new report questions the effectiveness of state and federal programs that cover the college costs of people who agree to work in certain occupations or underserved regions.
MONEY & MANAGEMENT
RED-FACED IN THE DESERT
A series of embarrassing disclosures about the Community College of Southern Nevada has cost its president his job, and led to calls for an overhaul of the state's elected Board of Regents.
POKING AT EXEMPTIONS
Facing budget deficits in bad economic times, some cities gaze hungrily at a resource that has been largely off limits: property-tax payments from local colleges.
BRINGING CRIME TO LIGHT
In the latest skirmish in the battle over private-college records, a Georgia judge ruled that Mercer University must make public its campus police-blotter information.
PHANTOM MENACE
Why do so many campus marketing professionals view their counterparts in fund raising with suspicion?
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- NO, THANKS: The University of Maryland turned down an offer by Jayson Blair, the reporter fired by The New York Times for plagiarism, to donate some of the proceeds from his new book for journalism scholarships.
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- SCALING BACK: The president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute resigned from two of the corporate boards on which she served, in order to put more energy toward the demands of her job.
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- UNEXPECTED WINDFALL: The newly enacted Medicare overhaul could be a big help to colleges that pay for their retirees' drug costs.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
NEXT-GENERATION CLASSROOM
Professors and students in the health-professions program at Central Michigan University are using state-of-the-art technology in their recently completed building to find new ways of teaching and learning.
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- UNAUTHORIZED 'NETPAKS': Six leading academic publishers filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against a copy-shop owner in Austin, Tex., who sells packages of course materials online.
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- 4 TIMES AS FAST: The Internet2 project increased fourfold the speed of its Abilene computer network, which is widely used by academic researchers.
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- CHECKING OUT: Stanford University gave up its membership in a prominent advocacy group for college libraries.
STUDENTS
BRINGING CRIME TO LIGHT
In the latest skirmish in the battle over private-college records, a Georgia judge ruled that Mercer University must make public its campus police-blotter information.
DEALING WITH A DEFICIT
A fight is brewing between college lobbyists and the Bush administration over a proposal to change the way Congress sets the maximum Pell Grant each year.
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- ENDOWMENT EXPOSURE: Two Harvard undergraduates sought university approval for a new magazine about sex that would include nude pictures of students. Harvard officials said yes, then no.
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- COSTLY ARTICLE: Long Island University at Brooklyn removed the faculty adviser of its student newspaper after it published the grades of a former student leader.
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- $100-MILLION SOUGHT: The family of a student shot and killed by a Ball State University police officer filed a $100-million lawsuit against the officer and his chief.
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- WHAT THEY'RE READING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: A list of best-selling books.
ATHLETICS
SEX AND FOOTBALL
Charges of rape and other allegations at the University of Colorado at Boulder have heightened concern over recruiting abuses in big-time college sports.
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- VALUABLE AFFILIATION: Three leagues of historically black colleges are near agreement on a sponsorship deal with a company that will provide them with money, uniforms, and other benefits.
INTERNATIONAL
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- AUSSIE AFFAIRS: As students spend less time drinking and more time on their computers, publicans feel the pain.
NOTES FROM ACADEME
HIEROGLYPHS FROM THE SKY
A physicist at Caltech built a machine to take pictures of individual snowflakes in their native habitat. The results are crystalline.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
PERSONAL FINANCE IN ACADEME
MANY HAPPY RETURNS
John Vineyard, an investment counselor, offers a three-stage approach to saving and investing during and after an academic career.
GETTING BY, GETTING AHEAD
Two financial planners answer questions from Chronicle readers.
IN RETIREMENT
Six people find new uses for the skills they acquired working in higher education.
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- DEBT FRET: Experts offer tips on repaying your student loans.
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- MOVING ON: Elaine Showalter and Diane Middlebrook, two emerita professors of English, discuss their second careers: retirement.
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- THE BOSS OF ME: He was a prof, provost, and interim president. Now Milton Greenberg is in development -- self-development.
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- GO FIGURE: Debt, salaries, attitudes, and benefits -- by the numbers.
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- WHEN TO RETIRE: Never trust anyone over 30, you said. So now that you're 60, should you follow your instinct? Ms. Mentor ponders the question.
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- LET'S DO IT AGAIN: From full timer to adjunct is a terrible career move. But as a retirement option, it can be pretty attractive, writes Terry Caesar.
CHRONICLE CAREERS
NEW PROGRAMS, NEW PROBLEMS
For department heads, revising the curriculum is a lesson in human psychology.
HUNG OVER AGAIN
An assistant professor fears that he is throwing away his career one drink at a time.
PHANTOM MENACE
Why do so many campus marketing professionals view their counterparts in fund raising with suspicion?
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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
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