An assistant professor in the social sciences at a regional state university considers herself open to criticism. She listens to suggestions from student evaluations and from senior faculty members. But she was puzzled about how to react to two contradictory critiques of her publication plans. One quality educators must cultivate is to know when…

Nobody likes the current system of peer review, and most everybody agrees it should move online. But from there, opinions diverge. As humanities editors continue to experiment with Web-based technology, two proposed online tools are highlighting disagreement over what needs fixing. Peter H. Sigal, a blue-haired associate professor of history at…

In this article, the author presents a trend in higher education wherein students assert their opinions immediately instead of mastering and reflecting first on a material being studied. The author presents a particular situation wherein a scholar of postmodern thought taught an honors seminar on the French philosopher Michel Foucault to a class…

Marilee Jones has resigned as a dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after admitting that she had misrepresented her academic degrees when first applying to work at the university in 1979. As one of the nation's most prominent admissions officers--and a leader in the movement to make the application process less…

When people gathered last May for the commencement ceremony at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, they were greeted by chanting activists from the National Lawyers Guild and other left-wing groups. The university, protesters shouted, should fire John C. Yoo, a tenured professor who has taught at the law school…

The ever-simmering question of whether the tenure system should be reformed lit up the blogosphere, ignited by an online essay from the (tenured) professor Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the publishing phenomenon "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" and the popular blog Freakonomics. When Levitt posted "Let's…

In this article, the author discusses the views put forward at the most recent meeting of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a conservative organization devoted to the reformation of academe. Themes included assessment and accountability and the need for an increased focus on undergraduate teaching, and a general distrust of the…

Discusses the division among scholars about how they should express their views on going to war against Iraq. (EV)

Describes how members of minority groups view the affirmative action cases at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on the basis of the difficulty they have had in gaining access to higher education. (EV)

Excerpts from Supreme Court opinions on legal standards for federal affirmative action programs include those from the majority opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a concurring opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, and a dissenting opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens. (MSE)

Excerpts from five Supreme Court justices' opinions (Powell, O'Connor, White, Marshall, and Stevens) in a decision striking down an affirmative-action agreement protecting the jobs of minority-group teachers with less seniority than some white teachers during layoffs are presented. (MSE)

Presents the section of the full report which addresses the overemphasis on research over teaching by faculty at the university level. Noted are a decline in the number of hours devoted to teaching responsibilities and increased numbers of books and articles published. (DB)

The interview with Derek Bok addresses his reasons for stepping down from the Harvard presidency; cost-cutting efforts at Harvard; "selective excellence" as a planning principle; current needs of Harvard; corruption of higher education by corporate ties; the changing college presidency; and the role of ethical considerations in decision…

The article examines the controversy between traditionalists and multiculturalists in revising the literary canon, and advocates replacement of traditionalist assumptions of universalism in literature with recognition of the various identities of readers, especially in light of substantial bodies of work by minority writers. (DB)

Reports on the ideas of Clifford Adelman, senior analyst at the Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, noting his iconoclastic approach; research on enrollment patterns, student assessment, and remedial education; and reports on college-attendance patterns, engineering education, and women. Critics point to…