Describes how collective bargaining has emerged as an important factor in higher education, with some faculty resisting unionism as a threat to status and dignity. Seeks to refute the source of such resistance, the "myth of academe," or the belief that faculty lead lives devoted to selfless pursuit of knowledge in institutions carefully…

Interviews Bill Kibler, former Bonfire Advisor at Texas A and M, about the bonfire's special place in the college's culture. Describes how the community is coping after the accident, and what has been the response to the recent independent report on the accident, which cited numerous physical and organizational failures as a cause of the disaster.…

Used in-depth, semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of women academics at a South African university. Found positive and negative experiences: positives included the lessening of overt discrimination and flexible work hours. Negatives included the "double workload" of traditional female duties combined with work life and…

Reports on a longitudinal study that partially supports Chickering's hypotheses about the relationship between collegiate experiences and psychosocial development. Results indicate that development of purpose and sense of competence were related to collegiate experiences. However, measurement issues emerged regarding development over extended…

Using a campus climate assessment instrument developed by Rankin (1998), we surveyed students (n = 7,347) from 10 campuses to explore whether students from different racial groups experienced their campus climates differently. Students of color experienced harassment at higher rates than Caucasian students, although female White students reported…

Describes a study to assess perceptions of campus judicial officers/members of the Association for Student Judicial Affairs (ASJA) regarding the effectiveness of the Clery Act (Campus Security Act) on campus judicial practices. In addition it provides information regarding overall effectiveness of Clery as perceived by the respondents. (Contains…

This paper examines college commencement, a formal campus exiting ritual orchestrated for students as they conclude their academic careers. The manuscript is focused on a single commencement ritual that illuminates the power of rituals to transmit cultural norms and provides an anthropological perspective that benefits scholars, practitioners, and…

Author presents observations related to college students' informal manner of addressing authors when writing critically about literary works composed in the first person. Topics analyzed include students' relationship with the author depending on the literary work, and students' familiarity when addressing their elders and authority figures in the…

This is a personal reflection on the impact of Internet technologies on higher education around the world over the last 13 years. It chronicles my observations of differences between perceptions and realities, of enthusiasm and disappointment, and the changes that have taken place in learning, teaching, and the structure of higher education during…

Urban universities present an inherent conflict for administrators who oversee campus planning and development. Some see the need to withdraw and create an academic refuge. Others believe a campus must integrate physically with the city in order to stay relevant. The two approaches cannot be more dramatically different, and they have profound…

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge had developed different attitudes towards the award of honorary degrees through the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. Recently, both have adopted a similar cautious and apolitical stance. This essay describes the role of honorary degrees in the production and reproduction of their cultural…

This study addresses a campus institutional effectiveness (IE) process and its influence on faculty and staff. Although a comprehensive, rational IE process appeals to campus leaders, this study found that it creates significant faculty and staff challenges. Campus leaders, faculty, and staff differ in their (a) knowledge and support of IE; (b)…

Objective: Because little is known about college-age smokers, the authors conducted a qualitative study to better understand this population. Participants: Forty college student smokers from 12 Pacific Northwest colleges participated in the study. Methods: The authors identified themes and built models to ascertain important factors related to…

Unlike most businesses, universities are both capital-and labor-intensive; yet contrary to standard business practice, they wring the most use and value out of their plants and payrolls for fewer than seven months a year. University presidents may appear to be very much like chief executive officers, but their powers to change course--or even a…

This paper builds on previous research into teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching with an investigation of information technology academics. Using a phenomenographic approach to build a model of IT academics experiences and practice of teaching, we aimed to identify any specific issues that academics in the IT discipline face and to…