The 22-year-old Whitaker Foundation, the largest private supporter of biomedical engineering, will close in 2006 to avoid becoming a bureaucracy in search of a reason for being. The foundation, with assets of about $442 million, will increase payouts until 1999, then decrease them as it spends its way out of existence. About 95% of grants go to…

This article reports on new programs that focus on training skilled scientists and mathematicians who will help solve Africa's myriad problems. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in Cape Town, South Africa, offers one of the first working examples of a growing effort to develop a cadre of highly trained, practically minded scientists…

The Harvard University Business School will establish a new program on ethics, leadership, and competitiveness in business, to be financed with $30 million in private gifts. The major contributor is the chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, an alumnus and former ambassador. (MSE)

As Internet 2 takes shape, the university administrators and researchers behind it are taking care to address the political and economic challenges experienced by the original Internet. The new, privatized system will be faster and more powerful, but some fear privatization has shifted the balance of power toward profit-making instead of meeting…

While Internet content relating to black culture is burgeoning, and scholars want to make more available, the cost of selecting and organizing materials is hindering their efforts. Some innovative approaches are being used, including an online course on media, technology, and diversity and a compact-disk collection of research on slave trading.…

Developers of Internet 2, an improved computerized information system designed for research purposes, are seeking federal support, suggesting that the new network's benefits would extend well beyond the academic realm. The educators behind the system propose that the system will create not only better electronics, but also new network applications…

Foreign language teachers' organization leaders criticize the ideas and planning behind a privately-funded National Foreign Language Center, charging that: they were not adequately involved in its preparation, adult language education would be overemphasized, the funds could be used otherwise, and a tendency toward a single language education…

A legislative proposal by the Association of American Universities calls for creation of a federal agency similar to the National Science Foundation to develop and promote a national policy of support for foreign language, area, and international studies research and instruction at colleges, universities, and other institutions. (MSE)

Excerpts from the National Collegiate Athletic Association Presidents' Commission policy paper on intercollegiate athletics reform address such issues as the college experience of athletes, awarding of student financial aid, eligibility, the effects of competition, recruitment policies, program effects on institutions as well as athletes, and…