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From the issue dated February 11, 2005 |
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Recruiting the World: A Special ReportFOREIGN LEGIONSWith increased costs, competition, and visa regulation, American colleges must work harder to attract international students, who are seen as valued assets on their campuses. TEACH LOCALLY, RECRUIT GLOBALLYTwo-year institutions, bucking a downward trend at four-year colleges, are attracting more and more foreign students -- and recruiters are going overseas to land them. Short SubjectsPOMONA'S PRIME NUMBER: The number 47 seems to hold a place of cosmic significance for the California college. THE REAL THING: Students at the University of Iowa have protested a vending contract with Coca-Cola, accusing the company of human-rights abuses abroad. SLEEPLESS IN FLORIDA: A staff member at Rollins College stayed on the air for 110 consecutive hours in an effort to break the Guinness record for the longest nonstop radio broadcast. PRAY AND BEAR IT: Researchers at the University of Oxford will examine whether belief either in God or in more earthly devices can increase subjects' tolerance for pain. The FacultyTEACHING THE TEACHERSFive new books offer advice on subjects great and small, including what to wear in the classroom and how not to behave like an idiot in front of the students. A NON-CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVEThe writer Percival Everett, a professor of English at the University of Southern California, refuses easy labels for himself or his body of work. LIFE LESSONA legal scholar's priorities are upended by fatherhood, writes Jeffrey Nesteruk, a professor of legal studies at Franklin & Marshall College. A HEALTHY MIXColleges need to take practical steps to foster interdisciplinary scholarship, say professors at four leading research universities. TRANSPARENCYA close look at your hiring and promotion procedures, and your campus culture, can help diminish the risk of sexual-discrimination lawsuits, writes Pamela Haag, the author of a forthcoming book on sex-discrimination law. PEER REVIEW: A Nobel Prize winner in chemistry is leaving the Johns Hopkins University for Duke University. ... A law professor known for his advocacy of wrongly convicted prisoners is moving from Northwestern University to Stanford University. ... A longtime administrator at the City University of New York has been named president of its York College. SYLLABUS: At Clemson University, the title of one political-science course, "Anti-Americanism: Hating the U.S. at Home and Abroad," speaks for itself. 'CREDIBLE THREATS OF VIOLENCE': Hamilton College canceled a speech by a University of Colorado professor who had compared the September 11 victims to latter-day Adolf Eichmanns. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENT: The University of Colorado System has agreed to pay $1.54-million to a former professor of psychiatry to settle a lawsuit over his firing. 'LIKE NOTHING HAD HAPPENED': A professor who resigned from Western Oregon University said she left in part because it was not doing enough to keep faculty members from sexually harassing students. Research & BooksA NON-CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVEThe writer Percival Everett, a professor of English at the University of Southern California, refuses easy labels for himself or his body of work. BOUND TO DIFFERStudents have shown a preference for printed textbooks over online versions, but publishers are encouraging them to make the switch anyway. 'STUFF NOBODY ELSE CAN SEE'Atop an inert Mexican volcano, the world's largest short-millimeter telescope is being built by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Mexico's National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics. WONDROUS COMPLEXITYThose who think they see an end to scientific knowledge are shortsighted, writes Robert B. Laughlin, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of physics at Stanford University. VERBATIM: A scholar at an ethics center at the University of Melbourne, in Australia, discusses the intertwined effects of nature and nurture on morality. RESEARCH CONTROVERSY: The social-sciences faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is abuzz over the sudden departure of a prominent professor of anthropology. NOTA BENE: In Drawn to Extremes, a professor of communication at the College of Charleston champions editorial cartoonists as social critics. HOT TYPE: A classics professor has published a new book on conspiracies ancient and modern. ... Nature Publishing Group has introduced a series of clinical medical journals. Government & PoliticsDELVING FOR DOLLARSCollege employees would be required to pay federal taxes on their tuition benefits under a plan to generate more revenue proposed by a joint Congressional committee. LEGAL LIMBThe University of Massachusetts, in one of six states with no public law school, wants to adopt the Southern New England School of Law. Not everyone thinks the university has made its case. 'BAD IDEA': Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican and former U.S. secretary of education, spoke out against the notion of government controls on college tuition. 3-2-1-OOPS: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration told scientists it had made a mistake when it rescinded $4.8-million in grants that the agency had pledged to finance. PRICE-CONSCIOUS RULING: A judge ordered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to pay some of the costs that three law firms incurred in their challenge of undergraduate affirmative-action policies. NEW FEES, HIGHER SALARIES: Revisions in immigration law are about to increase colleges' costs of hiring foreign faculty members, researchers, and medical residents. TRYING AGAIN: Republican leaders of the education committee in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill to renew the Higher Education Act that is nearly identical to last year's. '60 MINUTES' FALLOUT: Republican leaders of the House of Representatives education committee have agreed to hold a hearing on alleged wrongdoing by for-profit colleges, as highlighted in a recent CBS report. STATEHOUSE DIGEST: News of legislative and executive actions in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. STRICT SCIENCE: A new conflict-of-interest policy at the National Institutes of Health prevents scientists from receiving most cash payments and prizes from outside organizations. CRUNCH NEWER NUMBERS: The U.S. Education Department should try harder to annually update the tax tables it uses to calculate students' eligibility for federal financial aid, the Government Accountability Office has recommended. A MATTER OF HIRING POLICIES: The U.S. House of Representatives has urged the Bush administration to challenge a federal appeals court's decision allowing colleges to restrict military recruiting on their campuses. WELCOME CHANGE ON CAMPUSES: The federal government has proposed extending streamlined legal conditions on federal research grants to all colleges receiving the grants and all federal agencies issuing them. WASHINGTON IN BRIEF: A key higher-education official will stay on at the U.S. Education Department. ... A federal appeals court threw out a jury's verdict in a lawsuit against Sallie Mae. ... The Cato Institute said Congress should phase out federal student aid. Money & ManagementHARD HATS, HIGH PRICESThe soaring cost of construction materials like steel and concrete has hit colleges hard in the midst of one of the biggest campus building booms in decades. DELVING FOR DOLLARSCollege employees would be required to pay federal taxes on their tuition benefits under a plan to generate more revenue proposed by a joint Congressional committee. FOREIGN LEGIONSWith increased costs, competition, and visa regulation, American colleges must work harder to attract international students, who are seen as valued assets on their campuses. TEACH LOCALLY, RECRUIT GLOBALLYTwo-year institutions, bucking a downward trend at four-year colleges, are attracting more and more foreign students -- and recruiters are going overseas to land them. LIVING UPSTREAMAt Berea College, the ecological impact of daily life is a daily concern, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large. HIGHER AUTHORITYReligious colleges are a uniquely unregulated subculture of academe, writes Alan Contreras, the administrator of the Office of Degree Authorization of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission. TRANSPARENCYA close look at your hiring and promotion procedures, and your campus culture, can help diminish the risk of sexual-discrimination lawsuits, writes Pamela Haag, the author of a forthcoming book on sex-discrimination law. HORNING OUT: State legislation would let the University of Texas Investment Management Company avoid having to disclose as much information about its private-equity investments as previously required. NO MATCH: Kalamazoo Valley Community College has forbidden new full-time employees to smoke, even at home. PUBLISHER TO PRESIDENT: A Miami newspaper executive is the new head of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a major supporter of higher education. INVENTIONS: Carbonated fruit is bubbling up at Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center. HE SAID WHAT? Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard's president, has never been one to tread lightly around a subject. Let's review. THE CHRONICLE INDEX OF FOR-PROFIT HIGHER EDUCATION Information TechnologyBOUND TO DIFFERStudents have shown a preference for printed textbooks over online versions, but publishers are encouraging them to make the switch anyway. ACCESSIBILITY ASSESSED: Colleges have a long way to go before online resources are available to students who are blind or deaf or have impaired mobility, a survey has found. 'FIRST STEP': Online diploma mills are the target of a student-oriented Web site unveiled by the U.S. Department of Education. StudentsBOUND TO DIFFERStudents have shown a preference for printed textbooks over online versions, but publishers are encouraging them to make the switch anyway. THE REAL THING: Students at the University of Iowa have protested a vending contract with Coca-Cola, accusing the company of human-rights abuses abroad. 'FIRST STEP': Online diploma mills are the target of a student-oriented Web site unveiled by the U.S. Department of Education. AthleticsBRIBERY VERDICT: A University of Alabama booster has been convicted of paying a high-school football coach $150,000 to steer a star player to Tuscaloosa. DIVISION II PENALTY: Lincoln University in Missouri has been punished by the NCAA for letting ineligible athletes compete. MARCH MADNESS MAGNIFIED: A company will broadcast games in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament on the Internet. RECLASSIFIED TO CLUB STATUS: Montclair State University will drop three men's and two women's teams so that its athletics program can "get smaller in order to get stronger." PUBLISHER TO PRESIDENT: A Miami newspaper executive is the new head of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a major supporter of higher education. InternationalFOREIGN LEGIONSWith increased costs, competition, and visa regulation, American colleges must work harder to attract international students, who are seen as valued assets on their campuses. TEACH LOCALLY, RECRUIT GLOBALLYTwo-year institutions, bucking a downward trend at four-year colleges, are attracting more and more foreign students -- and recruiters are going overseas to land them. 'STUFF NOBODY ELSE CAN SEE'Atop an inert Mexican volcano, the world's largest short-millimeter telescope is being built by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Mexico's National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics. ORANGE GLOWUkraine and other countries have borne the democratic fruit of self-limiting revolutions over the past 25 years, writes Richard Wolin, a professor of history, comparative literature, and political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. 'JUST A MISUNDERSTANDING': The Taiwanese education ministry has denied ordering private colleges to remove the word "China" from their names. FEELING A DRAFT: The Russian military raided college dormitories in an effort to find conscripts following the cancellation of student deferments. WEDDED TO A CHANGE: China's Ministry of Education has announced that it will end a 25-year-old policy that barred college students from marrying and from bearing children. 'COMPASSIONATE RESPONSE': The University of Zambia will give free anti-AIDS drugs to HIV-positive faculty members and students. VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA: Students on two campuses, including the University of Lagos, rioted to protest the government's decision to privatize residence halls. RESEARCH CONTROVERSY: The social-sciences faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is abuzz over the sudden departure of a prominent professor of anthropology. NEW FEES, HIGHER SALARIES: Revisions in immigration law are about to increase colleges' costs of hiring foreign faculty members, researchers, and medical residents. Notes From Academe'STUFF NOBODY ELSE CAN SEE'Atop an inert Mexican volcano, the world's largest short-millimeter telescope is being built by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Mexico's National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics, and Electronics. The Chronicle ReviewLIFE LESSONA legal scholar's priorities are upended by fatherhood, writes Jeffrey Nesteruk, a professor of legal studies at Franklin & Marshall College. WONDROUS COMPLEXITYThose who think they see an end to scientific knowledge are shortsighted, writes Robert B. Laughlin, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of physics at Stanford University. ORANGE GLOWUkraine and other countries have borne the democratic fruit of self-limiting revolutions over the past 25 years, writes Richard Wolin, a professor of history, comparative literature, and political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. LIVING UPSTREAMAt Berea College, the ecological impact of daily life is a daily concern, writes Malcolm G. Scully, The Chronicle's editor at large. HIGHER AUTHORITYReligious colleges are a uniquely unregulated subculture of academe, writes Alan Contreras, the administrator of the Office of Degree Authorization of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission. THE FIRST NIGHTSTANDCarlin Romano, critic at large for The Chronicle and literary critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer, asks: Is President Bush semiliterate or a savvy instinctual reader? A HEALTHY MIXColleges need to take practical steps to foster interdisciplinary scholarship, say professors at four leading research universities. A CONFEDERACY OF IRONYThe artist Leo F. Twiggs rebels against the stereotypical iconography of the rebel flag. TRANSPARENCYA close look at your hiring and promotion procedures, and your campus culture, can help diminish the risk of sexual-discrimination suits, writes Pamela Haag, the author of a forthcoming book on sex-discrimination law. MELANGE: Selections from books of interest to academe. THE SHORT LIST: What are the most influential books? Letters to the EditorChronicle CareersARE YOUR PARENTAL-LEAVE POLICIES LEGAL?Those of many institutions are not, says Joan C. Williams, a law professor at American University. But a best-practices model worth adopting is now available. COURTING ELUSIVE CANDIDATES: A search consultant offers tips on how hiring committees can find and attract good prospects. SOMETIMES YOU'RE THE PROBLEM: Not everyone is cut out for the academic grind, and Ms. Mentor salutes those who realize it and move on. 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