In three major reports on higher education, some common problems emerged as recurrent themes: the absence of faculty responsibility for the curriculum as a whole, the lack of structure in baccalaureate programs, emphasis on specialization results in a tendency to downplay the humanities, thinking and problem solving skills are neglected. (MLW)

Undergraduate admission test scores were traced for Ph.D. recipients in eight arts and science disciplines and compared to the scores of those who earned degrees in business, law, and medicine. The data do not support the hypothesis that more able college graduates have done post-baccalaureate study in the professions. (Author/MLW)

Describes experimental college Shakespeare seminar that used Macintosh computers and software called ELIZA and ADVENTURE to develop character dialogs and adventure games based on Hamlet's characters and plots. Programming languages are examined, particularly their relationship to metaphor, and the use of computers in humanities is discussed. (LRW)

The higher education reports fail to put education in a social context and ignore the main finding of 50 years of research--that the problems of education are caused by the outer society and cannot be solved until changes are made in basic economic and political institutions. (Author/MLW)

Reviews results of a survey by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) of 3,835 scholars in the humanities and social sciences who are working both in colleges and universities and outside the academic community. Areas highlighted include professional reading, authorship patterns, computer use, and library use. (LRW)

Plain Doctoring, an elective, preclinical seminar on the phenomenology of the patient and the physician at Harvard Medical School, is described. Home visits serve as the major text for examining the patient's experience of illness and treatment. Readings in the humanities complement the house calls. (Author/MLW)

Points to several influences on the current and future status of the humanities in community colleges--e.g., the tendency for students to take most of their humanities credits in their first years of college; the increasing vocationalism in higher education; and the variability in individuals' readiness for particular humanities experiences. (DMM)

The federal role in the support of graduate work and research in the fields of humanities, science and the arts is discussed. The pool from which graduate students are selected has been falling in most doctoral programs. One reason for this decline is the decreasing availability of jobs for graduates. (MLW)

The president of Stanford University discusses his views on problems facing research universities, including research secrecy, ethics, and economics of proprietary knowledge generated in the university, faculty conflict of interest, place of humanities in a society driven by technology, and decline of government support for academic research.…

Two concerns of liberal education reported in this essay are "alienation" and "fragmentation." Social work has a value base that addresses both issues. Social work education deals with technical problems and cultural puzzles and can provide a direction for liberal arts as it attempts to clarify and resolve value conflicts.…

Presents people's experiences and perceptions of events in four lesson plans. Includes personal accounts of people moving westward, one family's decision to migrate to America, Lucy Stone and women's rights, and Langston Hughes' high school days. (CK)

Examines the status of humanities curricula in community colleges nationwide. Data gathered on course offerings and enrollments from 178 two-year colleges in 1975 and 1977 showed that humanities enrollments decreased while total two-year college enrollment increased. (DR)

Describes 192 studies published between July and December 1978 which deal with bilingualism and bidialectalism; language and verbal learning; literature, humanities, and media; teacher education; and written and oral communication at all educational levels. (DD)

The Getty Information Institute conducted a two-year study of online searching by 27 humanities scholars using DIALOG. Discusses results and recommends that library services: provide interdisciplinary information for humanities scholars; recognize that online searching in humanities may be harder than in sciences; expect wide preferences for…

The usefulness of Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores in combination with grades in high school courses and the number and quality of these courses in predicting college grades in various fields was studied for 981 college freshmen. The SAT and collateral variables were able to predict grades in different areas and could be useful in guidance.…