This article features four colleges and how they take on veterans' issues in research and real life. These colleges are (1) Syracuse University; (2) Purdue University; (3) University of Southern California; and (4) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Last year Syracuse established the Institute for Veterans and Military Families to focus…

This article describes Hanover College's Early Alert Team, an early-alert program that seeks to identify students' academic, social, or personal troubles as soon as they surface. The team's five members gather information about students from all corners of the campus and then devise strategies to help them. The early-alert system has not only…

Bergen Community College, Middlesex County College, and Union County College are setting up (1) counseling programs to help welfare recipients determine their job interests and skills, (2) job-training courses, and (3) day-care centers for participants children. (MLW)

A number of colleges are making a formal commitment to community service by encouraging their students to sign up for local volunteer projects, some programs are even compulsory. Critics of the new programs say that requiring community service violates the spirit of the community service ethic. (MLW)

The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has begun a career counseling program for student-athletes to help them explore and plan for non-athletic careers. Because few athletes ever become professionals and because they are isolated from the mainstream of university life, UCLA officials believe that a special effort is needed on their…

Leadership training, offered at 600 colleges and universities, is cited as one solution to America's ethical, political, and economic decline. Most students find that leadership programs give them the mental and psychological tools to succeed. (MLW)

Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) is hoping a high-powered campus information system will help diversify its student body and provide innovative education. A new optical-fiber network will connect computers in dormitory rooms, faculty and staff offices, classrooms, libraries, and laboratories and be linked with local, national, and…

Rutgers University's alcohol and drug abuse program aids New Jersey college students while they live in special facilities and continue to attend class. Previously, students referred to off-campus clinics had to choose either recovery or college. However, some say help with addictions is not a college responsibility. (MSE)

The hometown of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has created the Blacksburg Electronic Village, a community-based computer network linking businesses, schools, and individual community members. The university, telephone company, and town established the system collaboratively in 1992, and additional grants have come to the…

Rural areas have difficulty attracting physicians, and they also send fewer students to medical schools than do urban areas. A program at the University of Washington's medical school known as WAMI--for Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho--is trying to combat that problem. (MLW)

A new program linking the Phoenix Union High School District with local community colleges and state universities identifies high-risk high school students, brings their work up to college level, counsels them, and monitors their progress to graduation. The high dropout rate forced institutions in the different segments to cooperation. (MSE)