Current Issue

News and Commentary

• Teaching With Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart

  Teaching with Twitter means students are more involved. And that can take classes in risky directions, writes Jeffrey R. Young in College 2.0.

  • Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back
  • Video: The Digital Peanut Gallery

• Rare Birds Star on Emory Menu at Thanksgiving

  Emory University, a leader in the sustainable-foods movement on campuses, is experimenting with "heritage" turkeys for its annual feast for 8,000.

• Campuses See Boom in Risk-Management Services

  With a budget of $2-million and growing, Auburn U.'s risk managers scout out a widening range of potential threats.

  • Commentary: Managing Risk in College Athletics

• Libraries Explore Big Ideas to Overcome Small Budgets

  Steep cuts and shrinking staffs are inspiring libraries to find innovative, collaborative ways to handle collections and share costs.

• Doha: the Davos of Higher Education?

  Garrick Utley writes that if Doha, Qatar, hopes to be for colleges what Davos, Switzerland, is for economics, the Internet connection may need to improve.

• Latin America Looks to Europe for Teaching Reform

  Recent efforts in Mexico and other countries, often in partnership with the European Union, aim to inspire critical thinking in the classroom.

• Foreign Demand Drops for American M.B.A. Degrees

  U.S. dominance in graduate business education is slipping as young foreign applicants opt to study elsewhere, says the Graduate Management Admission Council.

• Bad Tackles, Stray Balls, and Hot Weather: Managing Risk in College Athletics

  From imprudent training to spotty equipment, college sports can be legal nightmares. But there are ways to lessen the risks, writes Alyssa S. Keehan.

• A Crusade for Cannabis

  Sunil K. Aggarwal conducted a lobbying blitz to persuade the AMA to consider the medical benefits of marijuana.

• Professors of the Year Are Celebrated for Innovative Teaching

  Four faculty members win recognition for expanding the boundaries of the typical classroom experience.

• Teaching Matters: Creating Lives in the Classroom

  Online avatars bring German history to life for students at Stanford. Edith Sheffer explains.

• Violinist Brings Global Experience to U. of Texas Classroom

  For a violinist who has traveled all over the world, the University of Texas at Austin has come to seem like home.

• A Fine Legal Mess: When Student Groups Collide With Anti-Bias Policy

  Can a college compel a student group to abide by antidiscrimination rules that violate its religious views? The U.S. Supreme Court isn't saying, writes Robert M. O'Neil.

• California's Private Colleges Have Plenty of Room for Transfers

  "California's private, nonprofit colleges and universities have room for spring transfer students, and welcome applications for this spring and next fall from transfer...

• Diversity Often Takes a Back Seat in Trustee Selection

  "Boards in the public sector are not self-perpetuating, and diversity often takes a back seat to other considerations in election or appointment of trustees."

• Athletes' Graduation Rates Hit Another High, NCAA Says

  Seventy-nine percent of athletes graduated within six years, but the usual suspects -- football and men's basketball -- still lagged behind.

  • Chart: Colleges With Highest and Lowest Rates
  • Chart: Graduation-Success Rates by Sport

• International Engineering-Education Group Rejects India's Bid for Membership

  The Washington Accord cited concerns about India's higher-education quota system in deciding to extend the country's provisional status.

• Zionist Group in Israel Urges Students to Report 'Subversive' Professors

  An advertisement invites students to call a special hotline to "Stop the Thought Police in Academia" by reporting anti-Zionist lecturers or syllabi.

• British Council Sets Up Fund for Partnerships With U.S. Colleges

  The cultural and educational group has put aside $500,000 to expand ties between British and American institutions of higher education.

• Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back

  Speakers have more to fear these days than losing their notes. The audience could excoriate them on Twitter.

• Incendiary Videos, Knucklehead Students

  If you knew what Ed Comeau knows about students and fireplay, you'd be very afraid.

• Mom's the President, and I'm Outta Here

  When a student's mother became president of his top-choice university, he opted for a backup plan.

• A Teaching Hospital Tries to Transform Urban Health Care

  "We're trying to create an efficient health-care system on the South Side of Chicago where one doesn't exist now," says the leader of the effort.

• Universities Offer International Resources to Help Economy at Home

  Colleges can use their overseas connections to help local businesses grow, speakers said at the annual meeting for public and land-grant universities.

• Sallie Mae Fights for Student-Loan Role in a Campaign That's All About Jobs

  Sallie Mae has organized a campaign among its thousands of employees to save the bank-based student-loan system -- and, the company says, many of their jobs.