Duke University's affirmative action plan for faculty, unveiled in the late 1980s, has had limited success. Critics blame this on a small pool of minority doctorates and in-house resistance. Success has been greatest in the history department. The school has been more successful in attracting African-American graduate students. (MSE)

Examines four distinct but interrelated stages that first-year graduate students must resolve, and discusses needed research for the four-year level paradigm and its implications. Reminds college personnel of the importance of facilitating successful adjustment to graduate study. (ABL)

A pilot experiment examined ambiguity in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning by graduate and undergraduate students. The findings revealed that most ESL speakers have greatest difficulty in understanding sentences with derived-structure ambiguity. Underlying-structure ambiguity was the next most difficult to understand, followed by lexical…

A graduate student in educational administration at Florida State University reflects on a practicum to develop leadership skills through role-playing activities. Although this student was effective at active listening, eye contact, voice qualities, and information solicitation, word choices were a problem. Feedback from participating principals…

Explores accreditation standards, ethical codes, and literature on counselor educator and student interactions. Looks at ethical guidelines on student-faculty relationships and student satisfaction with faculty relationships. Suggests potential research issues and considers the impact of this information on programs. (Author/NB)

Leaders of the movement to unionize graduate teaching/research assistants are learning organizing tactics through the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, and plotting strategies for a critical campaign year. Graduate students at 20 universities already have collective bargaining units, students at 15 institutions are campaigning for union…

Reports on a 1995-1996 national survey of master's in social-work (MSW) programs, focusing on nonacademic admissions criteria and procedures used to assess candidates. The report assesses the commonalities found in the responses and sample materials used, describes challenges in using nonacademic criteria, and presents a model for defining and…

Considers the empirical validity of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) as a predictor of performance in a graduate psychology program. Data for 167 graduate psychology students suggest that the GRE is predictive for first-year grades but not other kinds of performance, with the exception that male performance on the GRE Analytical test was…

Presents a case where a threat of suicide was made in the first session. In this training clinic a closely supervised co-therapy team was used. This case highlights several techniques in the solution-focused approach, and demonstrates how a specific focus can lead to deeper exploration of family concerns. (Author/EMK)

Replicates C. Haas and L. Flower's 1988 think-allowed reading study. Finds that, when reading a passage on a topic more familiar to first-year students, the undergraduates generated substantially more rhetorical comments than they did with the Haas and Flower passage. Cautions researchers and teachers to avoid hasty assumptions about underlying…

Counselor educators can assist beginning counselors by teaching them how to use outcome research in their clinical work and how to conduct their own outcome assessments. Presents an infusion model for use by counselor-education programs in integrating counseling-outcome research throughout the counseling curriculum. (Author)

Makes a series of recommendations for dealing with the problem of the number of PhD English candidates versus the smaller number of college teaching positions that are available each year. Asserts that far too many new PhD candidates are being admitted. Suggests, for example, guidelines for assessing PhD programs and the use of apprenticeships.…

Examines how history graduate students seek information and how they use the university library in their information-seeking process, based on interviews at UCLA. Explores the use of new technologies and the reliance that history graduate students place on reference librarians and librarians in special collections. (Author/LRW)

Studied the experiences of reentry women in psychology doctoral programs at a research university and illustrates the usefulness of the qualitative case study in exploring women's experiences. Case study research can be a powerful tool for feminist researchers. (SLD)

The case-study method used in "Understanding Graduate Women's Reentry Experiences" yielded personal information of considerable depth, but the conclusions drawn from the study are not all that different from those drawn from more quantitative investigations. Suggests that a multimethod approach is the best research strategy. (SLD)