"Doing well by doing good" is the business mantra of the for-profit-college industry. But one does not have to look far to find people who question the slogan's sincerity or the very legitimacy of that model. And that was even before reports of some companies' abusive student-recruiting practices and questionable educational standards fed a public…

The University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT-Dallas) was conceived 10 years ago as a public institution along tried-and-true lines--a comprehensive metropolitan university meant to serve a diverse student population and to improve the economic outlook of a part of the city that prosperity has left behind. But that was before management consultants…

Despite a shaky economy, Quinnipiac University is currently developing a new campus called York Hill to eventually include residence halls for 2,000 students, a mammoth parking garage, and a $40-million student center. The university has also just acquired an office park a few miles away in North Haven that the space-crunched institution plans to…

This article reports that the credit crisis tying global financing systems into knots has left hundreds of colleges scrambling for cash to pay their bills and to cover the spiking interest on their debts. While it is still unclear to what extent the federal government's new $700-billion bailout package will help unwind the credit tangle, the…

About a year ago, Heidelberg College pumped up its spending for a new, streamlined scholarship program, and then promoted its simplified formula so that students would know how much they could get before they even applied. Heidelberg's strategies worked as it was able to brought in the second-largest class in its 158-year history and a gain in its…

Heavy investment in derivatives, whose value derives from the price movement of some underlying security, has meant heavy losses for some colleges and universities despite the fact that institutional investors are required to assure that they understand the risks of such investment. (MSE)

Effective June 8, 1995, new patent laws resulting from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) will become effective. Some would protect researcher rights to intellectual property. Others may make it harder for institutions to commercialize on faculty and graduate student research due to shortened patent terms. (MSE)

Explains how for Michael M. Crow, executive vice provost at Columbia University, knowledge is a form of venture capital. This means pushing Columbia beyond the usual role of creating knowledge and disseminating it in traditional manners, and instead taking the knowledge, incubating it, and projecting it using tools like the Internet. (SM)

Colleges and universities have devised a number of strategies to raise money for computers, including borrowing, courting foundations, reallocating funds from such things as financial aid and libraries, and general fund raising. Knowing the appropriate amount to spend on technology is difficult. (MSE)

Leaders at Voorhees College (South Carolina), a small historically black institution with limited finances, have used ingenuity and hard work to develop a campus computer system. Despite lack of faculty and staff sophistication in computer use, the college is gradually improving computer resources and faculty computing skills, and enterprising…

A National Association of College and University Business Officers project collects data on college administrative and business costs and compiles them for comparative purposes. The unpublished findings are available to participants to gauge institutional efficiency. However, some feel more institutions must participate for data to be useful. (MSE)

Despite 1992 federal law, most American colleges receiving gifts from foreign corporations, foundations, and nations have not reported them. Institutions cite ignorance of the law. Some gifts apparently were reported but not cited in the Education Department's registry of foreign gifts. Twenty-eight large foreign gifts, grants, and pledges to…

In 1992-93 the average total investment return for major college endowments was 13.1%, below most leading stock/bond indexes but well above the inflation rate for the period. Institutions that outperformed the average attributed success to investment in small and midsized U.S. companies and in foreign stocks and bonds. (MSE)

Colleges and universities are anticipating significant benefits from electronic transfer of student transcripts and other data, including reduced costs and time savings, improved academic advising, and standardization of information format. Early testing of the recommended software suggests institutions find the system useful. (MSE)

Unlike other universities, the University of Arizona is ending a policy of direct commercialization of faculty research, citing new federal rules governing conflict of interest and institutional budget constraints as the reasons. The decision also follows a suit against the university concerning spinoff rights. Critics argue that the university…