An interdisciplinary arts curriculum at Columbia College (Illinois) offers young arts professionals an opportunity to deepen creative exploration while preparing for administrative and teaching careers. The program offers collaborative teaching and classes that include students with many individual specialties. Five studio courses concentrate on…

A "sea semester" space program offered by the Sea Education Association offers liberal arts students a 12-week intensive course in marine science and seamanship aboard a schooner on the North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea that provides adventure, oceanography, and hard work. (MSE)

Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) involves students in faculty research projects to enrich the undergraduate experience. The summer program offers stipends to students to work with faculty or graduate students on specific projects. Students are exposed to the processes of research and better able to choose or reject a research career. (MSE)

A number of colleges are making a formal commitment to community service by encouraging their students to sign up for local volunteer projects, some programs are even compulsory. Critics of the new programs say that requiring community service violates the spirit of the community service ethic. (MLW)

Backers of Western Governors University hope it will revolutionize the ways colleges compete for students, professors teach, and education is measured, and believe the virtual university can help contain the costs of educating growing numbers of students in the 16 participating states. However, the administration faces challenges in areas of…

In March, after two years of debate that followed complaints by minority students, Stanford's faculty voted to replace the university's year-long Western culture requirement with a new requirement called "Cultures, Ideas and Values." Courses will be required to give attention to the issues of race, gender, and class. (MLW)

Uses of computer technology by two- and four-year colleges to enhance instruction, curriculum planning, research, and college and program administration in a wide variety of disciplines are described. The descriptions focus on innovative uses of both hardware and software. (MSE)