When students or recent graduates come to talk with Anthony M. Sozzo, an associate dean for student affairs at New York Medical College, about repaying their federal loans, he sometimes struggles with what to tell them. He states that the answers are increasingly being complicated by an ever-expanding federal loan-servicing system. The number of…

Shale-gas fracking is sure to bring all kinds of changes to Ohio. But what administrators and trustees at Ohio University are concerned about at the moment is who will control whether their land gets fracked. In years past, individual boards of trustees, for the most part, controlled the land at the state's colleges and universities. But a new law…

There are times when passion for a job is seriously tested by the circumstances and conditions of the work. The accumulated effect of long hours, increasing demand for services, shrinking budgets, intractable issues, litigious environments, and what seems at times like incessant bashing of higher education for political purposes can lead to…

This article reports that a five-year stretch of steady growth in the job market for academic historians is over. The number of job advertisements colleges have posted with the American Historical Association so far this academic year is down 15 percent from last year--the first decline since a slump that occurred in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. The…

When Michael J. Hogan, president of the University of Connecticut, declined a performance bonus after his first year as the head of the state's flagship university, he was not expecting grateful e-mail messages or glowing newspaper editorials, or that people he did not know would stop him at football games to say thanks. He is not the only college…

This article reports that textbook sales are falling at many university presses, a trend that has accelerated in the past couple of months. That's the word from press directors anxious about the decline but unsure what's causing it or how to stop it. Not every press has been affected. Two of the biggest players, Oxford University Press and…

Admissions deans everywhere shared concerns about recruiting students during a recession as they tried to discern how, or if, the economy would affect demand for their institutions. Amid this uncertainty, colleges used many different strategies. Some recruited more here and less there. Some offered more merit aid, while others scaled back. Some…

College presidents have long gotten flak for refusing to take controversial stands on national issues. A large group of presidents opened an emotionally charged national debate on the drinking age. In doing so, they triggered an avalanche of news-media coverage and a fierce backlash. While the criticism may sting, the prime-time fracas may help…

This article presents an interview with Michael M. Crow, president of Arizona State University; Nathan O. Hatch, president of Wake Forest University; Philip E. Long, CIO at Yale University; and Bonnie Neas, deputy CIO and executive director of ConnectND. They share their views on issues and practices in information technology. Crow worries the…

Over the past two decades, college admissions has become a prime-time preoccupation. Most people know at least something about the process, especially if they have a teenager in high school and a college guide on their coffee table. Nonetheless, widespread public misconceptions persist about admissions requirements, the selection process, and the…

Universities are not immune to the effects of the slumping economy, yet many of them are reporting their highest application and enrollment rates ever, as hard times compel people to look for new ways to increase their skills. Students' efforts to improve their job prospects, along with colleges' marketing efforts, have, indeed, translated to…

In this article, the author presents an interview with Thomas F. Staley, director of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas. This interview touches on many issues that have cropped up in his long stay at the helm of the center, where Dr. Staley juggles the demands of multiple constituencies that include scholars,…

Publishing research is more critical than ever to a university's mission, but too many institutions fail to recognize and support it adequately, even as their presses struggle to find their footing in a fast-changing online world. That's the message driven home by a report called "University Publishing in a Digital Age," released by "Ithaka", a…

The author, recently retired from a university presidency, offers some lessons he has learned concerning the elusive quality called leadership: (1) Academic bureaucrats at all levels need luck in generous quantities; (2) Try to know as much as possible about your institution; and (3) Administration requires patience. He draws on personal stories…

Many public-university administrators are watching from the sidelines as the nation's credit markets seize up, trying to assess the impact on universities' and state bonding agencies' ability to issue debt. Already, California and Massachusetts have asked for federal help to cope with bills because municipal-bond markets remain largely closed.…