The author reports on a legal battle over oral-history records housed at Boston College that casts light on how little legal weight pledges of confidentiality to research subjects actually have. As a federal court weighs whether to let the federal government seize, and hand over to British authorities, the college's records of confidential…

This article reports that for the opening of a huge new life-sciences building on its campus, Syracuse University wanted to capture the sense of expansiveness shared by architecture and science. It commissioned the composer Robert Ward to write a musical composition, "In Praise of Science," which was performed at the building's dedication late…

In this article, the author reports how today's environmental film festivals feature a new breed of documentary that offer nuanced narratives about intricate technologies. The author relates that the environmental films he grew up with sedately depicted the quiet sublimity of the wilderness. Today's films, the author observes, aim far beyond a…

This article talks about a new film entitled "An Unreasonable Man" that features the political activist Ralph Nader. The film rightly claims to be a documentary, but as the title hints, it's also a suspense movie. The film's first sequence briefly recounts Nader's much-maligned independent campaign for president in 2004. Although it shows him…

An instructional technology professor has created a documentary film about the killing of four college students at an antiwar protest at Kent State University (Ohio) in 1970. The film highlights the events and their social symbolism. It will be turned into an interactive exhibit housed at the university. (MSE)

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This May 7, 2004 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "Athletics Director Caught in 2002 Resume Scandal Gets a Second Chance" (Suggs, Welch); (2) "NCAA Punishes…