Video

'When Bad Times Come, Your Hand Is Forced'

The Chronicle asked speakers and attendees at its Leadership Forum how worried colleges should be about the economy — and how they should respond.

Can Web Tools Replace Blackboard?

Jim Groom, an instructional technologist at the University of Mary Washington, says colleges should move away from commercial course-management tools to reflect new Web trends like social networking.
(Related article)

Audio

2 Economists Explain How Colleges Can Make Strategic Cuts

As colleges pare down their budgets, it's important that they focus on "cuts that will actually reduce their long-term expenditures," rather than simply putting off needed spending, says Sandy Baum, an economist and a senior policy analyst with the College Board. Ms. Baum and another economist, Michael S. McPherson, president of the Spencer Foundation, spoke with The Chronicle about how the recession could affect both colleges' costs and the price of tuition.

'We're Always in Language'

Michael Holquist, the 2007 president of the MLA, explains why the group's recent conference explored the role of humanities outside the academy.

Young Librarians Discuss the Future of Their Profession

The Spellings Commission, One Year Later

Hear U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings talk about the continuing impact of last year's report by her Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
(Related article)

Podcast

Tech Therapy

Building Teams — and Trust

In higher education, collaboration is often held up as an ideal. But in reality, working as a team can be awfully difficult. Warren Arbogast and Scott Carlson discuss how to get different personalities to mesh — and what that has to do with Star Trek

Interviews

How Colleges Can Weather the Economic Storm

Cash-strapped colleges will have to make tough choices in the coming years about staffing, student aid, recruitment, and a host of other fundamental issues. Janice M. Abraham, president of United Educators Insurance, and Peter N. Stearns, provost of George Mason University, describe the courses of action that many institutions will consider.

In a Washington Minute

A Step Toward Student-Aid Simplification

Last week President Obama laid out his plan to streamline the process of applying for federal student aid. The outline wasn't quite as ambitious as Mr. Obama's campaign rhetoric, say Kelly Field and Sara Hebel, but it has drawn positive reviews from student-aid experts.

Slide Show

Journey to the Center of an Essay Mill

The term-paper mill of today is a surprisingly sophisticated operation, with the technological infrastructure befitting a sprawling business conducted almost entirely online. Take an online tour of what an essay-mill writer sees when he logs on to the Web site of Essay Writers, one popular service. (Related article)

Chapman U.'s Sacred Space

Chapman University's motto is "Christ and Church," but the institution's Fish Interfaith Center was designed to serve as a haven for students of all faiths: The only religion-specific icons in the building are components that can be set up or taken down at a moment's notice. (Related article)

Firing the Johanna Kiln

Richard Bresnahan, artist in residence at Saint John's University, in Minnesota, creates pottery entirely from natural materials in an effort to teach about sustainability.
(Related article)

A Drawing Course for Students Who Think by Sketching

Since 1974, Sue Ferguson Gussow has taught freehand drawing to Cooper Union architecture students with a touch as light and sure as that of Michelangelo shading an angel's eyelids. Says one student: "She almost tricks you into thinking that you've always had this skill."
(Related article)