The National Association of Scholars, a three-year-old college faculty association, promotes the study of Western culture and offers a forum to professors who have felt inhibited from questioning affirmative-action programs, required courses on ethnic diversity, and other issues whose advocates are increasingly described as "politically…

While tenured professors at financially troubled institutions are facing hiring freezes, salary cuts, tight travel budgets, and reduced office help, four-year colleges and universities are doing whatever they can to avoid dismissing tenured faculty for financial reasons. Some institutions may be running out of alternatives. (MSE)

Higher education's largest pension companies and others involved in the faculty retirement fund market can expect to face questioning about their investment policies and long-term performance. The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) have been sharply criticized for their investment strategies…

Some academics feel serving on corporate boards offers a chance to observe the inner workings of the corporate world, make contacts, learn industry needs, and help their institutions become better known. Critics feel faculty membership can compromise institutions' independence, risk conflicts of interest, and take too much time. (MSE)

Scholars are welcoming new efforts to emphasize quality over quantity in faculty scholarship. The latest critic is Stanford University's president, Donald Kennedy, who proposes a policy limiting the number of publications that candidates for tenure and promotion can submit to evaluation panels. Much concern is directed at the sciences. (MSE)

An expected wave of retirements has some institutions stockpiling professors by hiring them before openings occur, while many colleges and universities worry about the dwindling supply of high-quality faculty candidates. (MSE)

Prestige--of graduate program, faculty mentors, first job, and academic department--continues to wield enormous influence on faculty career patterns, according to two books: "Academic Labor Markets and Careers" (David W. Breneman and Ted I. K. Youn), and "A New Academic Marketplace" (Delores L. Burke). (MLW)

Some academics who are deeply religious are frustrated by an academic culture they feel marginalizes religious views and want to acknowledge the role religion plays in their lives and their scholarship. In some cases, the issue has resulted in court litigation. (MSE)

Common threads have emerged in recent faculty-president disputes, reflecting a widening gulf between faculty eager to increase their influence and administrators under pressure from a variety of constituents to raise money, improve academic quality, control tuition costs, and maintain enrollment. (Author/MSE)

Concerns about changing standards of scholarship prompted the University of Arizona to bar tenured professors no longer active in their disciplines, and not meeting current institutional standards for tenure, from evaluating colleagues for tenure and promotion. (MSE)

The August 1994 Ohio Supreme Court ruling opening state college and university tenure and promotion documents to the public allows examination of the faculty evaluation process. A review of 48 tenure cases at Ohio State University, which included interviews with scholars and officials, is presented. (MSE)

A survey by the Consortium on Financing Higher Education of retirement programs at 36 higher education institutions is described. It was discovered that most institutions have not done much systematic planning and did not know what retirement-related programs cost them. (MLW)

Although the 1980s period of belt-tightening in higher education meant layoff of many tenured professors, financially troubled colleges are trimming part-time and nontenured faculty jobs and offering encouraging early retirement in the current period of retrenchment. However, the proportion of tenured faculty has shrunk as the overall size of the…

Intense scrutiny of research university faculty by legislators, college presidents and deans, and others is focusing on professors' autonomy, evaluation, and the balance between research and teaching responsibilities. Economic pressures are compounding the concern over professional and institutional autonomy. (MSE)

Many associations representing academic disciplines say the number of job openings listed in their publications has increased in the last year or two, and more job interviews are taking place at their annual meetings. There is also an apparent increase in applications to doctoral programs. (MLW)