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From the issue dated January 18, 2008 |
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Short SubjectsSPORTS MARKETING'S BEST SHOTThe craze among college teams' fans for air cannons that shoot T-shirts has one company going great guns. THIS MAN IS AN ISLAND: The only male student at a college for women was puzzled by all the news-media attention he received. WEB WORDS: "Facebook," Merriam-Webster's second-place word of the year for 2007, shows how a college phenomenon has taken hold off the campus. BUMPER CROP IN IOWA: A graduate student at Iowa State University studies the effectiveness of bumper stickers in political campaigns. GREASE AND GO: Nine hundred pounds of butter sculpture from the Pennsylvania State Fair will go to power Penn State's tractors. BOOKWORM'S PARADISE: In an annual survey, the president of Central Connecticut State University ranks "America's Most Literate Cities." The FacultyA TENSE MARKET: Job seekers find good advice and high stress at the annual American Historical Association meeting. REDESIGNING A DISCIPLINE: Scholars called for a rethinking of the core course work for Ph.D.'s at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. Research & BooksTO SAVE A SPECIESResearchers track the North Atlantic right whale in hopes that more information might help stave off its threatened extinction. HOT TYPE: A forum at the American Historical Association's annual meeting grapples with the problems journal editors have with plagiarism accusations. Money & ManagementA WONK TALKSLynne Munson has become a public critic of wealthy colleges' endowment policies. Why is she so interested? MAKING USE OF ITS ASSETSYale University will increase spending from its endowment by 37 percent in the next fiscal year. PUBLIC POLLING: The Chronicle has joined with the Gallup Organization on a new partnership meant to help colleges learn about how they are perceived by the public. A BIG INCREASE: State appropriations for higher education climbed 7.5 percent in the 2007-8 fiscal year, to $77.5-billion. GREEN HURDLE: Although students clamor for it, the presidents of many small colleges say achieving carbon neutrality would be too expensive. BOARD BUDDY: A new nonprofit foundation, run by a search firm, plans to set up a free service to help colleges find qualified trustees. SUNSHINE SPAT: A Florida judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to strip tuition-setting authority from the Legislature. Government & Politics'A NEW ERA'Even the incoming president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators says the group needs to repair its reputation. WORDING ON PREFERENCES: A Missouri state court judge gave affirmative-action opponents a victory in a ruling on the language of a proposed referendum. MORE PORK, PLEASE: Congress resumed earmarks for scientific research after a one-year moratorium for most of such grants. PLAN FOR THE PUBLICS: New York's governor has proposed adding 2,000 faculty members to state universities and creating an endowment for the institutions. A DISLOYAL GENERATION? The New Hampshire vote shows again that the enthusiasm of young voters can be fleeting. Information TechnologyEXPENSIVE EFFICIENCYAs more colleges combine their libraries and IT departments, the transitions continue to be tough. LEGAL AID: University of Maine law students defend other Maine students against an RIAA file-swapping lawsuit. LINKED IN WITH: David Green, editor of the current issue of the journal Academic Commons, about the effects of computers on the liberal arts. THE WIRED CAMPUS: A roundup of technology news in higher education. StudentsCHANGING GEARSBaby boomers in physically demanding blue-collar jobs look to community colleges to help them switch careers and keep working. DOES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WORK?A group of scholars are undertaking a sweeping effort to measure the effects of preferences in higher education. A CALL FOR CHANGE: New kinds of law students may demand new kinds of instruction, some law professors say. MINORITY ENROLLMENT: Numbers of first-year black and Mexican-American law students dropped from 1992 to 2006. NEW CURRICULA: Scholars debate whether legal education needs to be more practical. AthleticsBIG MONEY: The NCAA is close to settling a huge antitrust lawsuit that could lead colleges to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more every year to their athletes. JUST THE TICKET: A sports-marketing company has set up what 16 colleges with big-time football programs hope will be lucrative events scheduled around spring practice games. InternationalARCTIC EXPECTATIONSAs Greenland contemplates independence, its national university is expanded in order to play a significant role in the process. CAUTION IN KENYA: Political violence causes universities there to delay opening, while U.S. study-abroad programs consider what to do. 'INCH BY INCH': A private, Western-backed university in North Korea will probably open this year despite problems securing funds, insist the project's organizers. CommentaryTHE RICH ARE DIFFERENTWe should close the gap between elite colleges and most other private higher-education institutions. FAULTY RECOMMENDATIONS: Higher education has two distinct subsystems, a reality that the Spellings Commission ignored. THE PRESTIGE MYTH: A degree from a big-name institution doesn't guarantee success. HOW TO CURB TUITION HIKES: Congress should rethink its approach to federal student loans. The Chronicle ReviewTHE DISAPPOINTED PROPHETAmerica has adopted Martin Luther King Jr.'s dreams but remains his nightmare, writes Christopher Phelps. IN PRAISE OF MELANCHOLYLife's transience deepens its rapture, so why are we medicating away that bittersweet truth? asks Eric G. Wilson. COME HERE OFTEN?The sociologist David Grazian does, to take the pulse of your nightlife persona. THE NEOCONS' PAST AND FUTUREA Q&A with Jacob Heilbrunn about his new book. ON ELOQUENCEIt needn't serve rhetoric and stands very well on its own, thank you, writes Denis Donoghue. CRITICAL MASS: Responses to Jared M. Diamond's fears that increased consumption will ravage the environment. CRITIC AT LARGE: John Gray is an expert on English political philosophy. He really should stick to writing books about that, writes Carlin Romano. NOTA BENE: Exhibits sort through Charlie Roberts's cabinets of curiosities, sound out Latino rockers, and pick up the Beats' paper trail. PORTFOLIO: Bruce Davidson on Isaac Bashevis Singer. Letters to the EditorChronicle CareersHOW TO BE AN AUTHOROnce you're finished writing a book, part of your job is to promote it. RESISTING THE RUSH TO JUDGMENTIt's all too easy to leap to conclusions when the personnel issue at hand is one of your hot-button concerns. CATERING TO OUR INVISIBLE GOVERNMENTFaceless county commissioners will probably affect your university more than prominent politicians ever will. |