Many of the nation's colleges and universities are not sure what the proposed DREAM Act would mean for their institutions--and a number of them are operating amid confusion in trying to serve undocumented students legally in light of the defeat of the measure in the Senate last year to pass the legislation. It would have allowed some immigrants…

To get some notion of how deeply scholars have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, one might look to someone like Dr. Erma Lawson, a medical sociologist from the University of North Texas. Lawson, who has coordinated the assistance efforts for the Association of Black Sociologists, has not hesitated to call on colleagues, graduate students, civil…