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…

In early 1916, the legendary Yale University archaeologist Hiram Bingham III completed his third and final expedition in southern Peru. He shipped home 74 boxes of artifacts from Machu Picchu, a spectacular site in the Andes that is believed to have been the last major settlement of the Inca empire. Those boxes were supposed to be on temporary…

Increasingly over the 20th century, nations, many of them newly formed as the result of the dissolution of empires, instituted those kinds of cultural-property laws and signed bilateral treaties and international conventions as means of strengthening them. Still the looting of archaeological sites continues. Iraq is but one example. Wherever…

For-profit higher education is a large, complex system of institutions, and its explosive growth over the last decade has made it a prominent force in shaping higher-education policy and practice. The for-profit educational sector is composed of a diverse set of colleges, but most of the literature neatly ignores this. The author argues that…

Discusses how Kaplan, the test-preparation company, has purchased 41 for-profit higher education institutions in less than two years, thereby becoming an industry player. (EV)

Describes how political, legal, and ethical battles over embryonic stem-cell research are focused on the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where the cells were first isolated. Addresses the issue of access to the university's stem cells and a recent presidential decision regarding funding for stem-cell research.(EV)

With a decision on an oyster developed at the University of Washington, the federal Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences has opened the way to granting patents for animals and animal improvements developed through genetic engineering and other scientific methods. (MSE)

A survey found the most selective colleges were most likely to require or recommend student ownership of microcomputers, specify the brand, offer purchase discounts, and have a low ratio of students, faculty, and staff to each microcomputer. It also gathered information on microcomputer ownership, access, software, assistance, and illegal use.…

Examines ownership issues relating to on-line Web-based distance education college courses, including shared ownership by institutions and professors, approaches copied from the entertainment industry, professors as "free agents," and additional compensation for course development. This issue is central to faculty contract negotiations. (DB)

No college or university last year joined the 14 institutions that already require students to buy computers. The reasons include: greater than expected costs of supporting required computers, lack of educational software, and adequency of computer laboratories are sufficient for the needs of most students. (MLW)

Increasingly, colleges are debating whether or not to require students to own computers. Issues include whether computers are the best use of student resources, how to pay for the cost of both computers and campus networks, faculty perceptions of the need for computers, and computer access versus computer ownership. (MSE)

The growth of distance education and the widespread use of multimedia course materials has led to interest in packaging and selling online courses. While few such courses are available, and fewer still have been successful, debate over issues of academic freedom and intellectual property is heightening. Some faculty say the greatest concern is…

The provost of the California Institute of Technology has urged faculty to inform journal publishers that faculty articles about research done on campus could be published only if the authors and university retained copyright to the material, a radical departure from conventional practice. Doing so would enable researchers to distribute their work…