In this article, the author shares his experiences as a professor of English at Monroe Community College in New York. He compares teaching at a community college as something similar to transporting lost souls across the River Styx. He relates that the open door admissions policy practiced at his school has given him opportunities to reach out to…

The fire that struck in the Eastern Illinois University's Blair Hall on April 28, 2004, disrupted a number of professional lives, though no one was killed or injured due to a good emergency plan dutifully executed. Several tips on disaster preparedness and recovery that could benefit institutions caught in a similar situation are presented.

In this article, the author shares the difficulties she faced as she tried to reach a balance between her career as a scientist and her role as a mother. She speaks of how she often found problems in putting her children into day care centers. She also relates that the confidence mothers have in their academic careers is correlated to the quality…

According to this author, by now everyone in America has learned to celebrate diversity. People do so to signify that they are a good person, they are hip, trendy, and "down with the program." He claims, however, that in academe, the word "diversity" still functions as a rhetorical trump card, always uttered with the tonal implication that the…

Students of Coppin State University are using a system that merges video recordings of class lectures with a digital version of the students' own notes. The system, sold by Tegrity Inc. is unusual in its use of an electronic pen along with digital recordings, with administrators and faculty members believing that the technology would improve…

Academic departments should beware of "the tyranny of the monograph," and consider projects like translations and electronic publications in making hiring and tenure decisions, a Modern Language Association panel said in a much-anticipated report. The report gives a thorough historical analysis of "the shifting nature of academic work over the…

In this article, the author discusses self-injury, which is a strategy to manage painful emotions. Generally, it is not about attempting suicide. In addition, it operates in complex ways. One one level, it is a method of communicating feelings when the self-injurer lacks other skills with which to express them. On another level, it helps people…

Canada's colleges and universities are looking for ways to recruit aboriginal students wary of a once-hostile educational system. Prime Minister Paul Martin's promise in November 2005 of increased funding to close the educational gap between aboriginals and the rest of the population would bolster three existing federal programs that provide…

The US Navy is encountering fierce resistance at home over its plans to develop a laboratory in Honolulu at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Proponents of the proposed facility assert it will bring millions of dollars to the campus, but critics question whether universities should engage in classified research and weapons development, and fear that…

Several US colleges, in their relentless pursuit of prestige, become obsessed with attracting students with increasingly extravagant student unions, dormitories, and other facilities. J. Douglas Toma, an associate professor at the Institute for Higher Education at the University of Georgia who is working on a book about the competition for status…

The new Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York may not have the history or prestige of Columbia University, but it does not come with the high tuition and fees of the older college either. Stephen B. Shepard, the founding dean of the school believes the school will help him forge a new way of teaching journalism at a time…

Higher-education institutions in the US are increasingly hiring ombudsmen to resolve faculty members' complaints before they escalate into more serious problems. Faculty ombudsmen handle a range of complaints, from mundane disputes over office space to career-changing battles over termination.

The American Academy's Rome Prize brings together scholars and artists whose work relies on the rich and ancient city, in a Renaissance-style palace, which was custom-built for the institution in 1914. The academy experience is intrinsically communal, with staff members and fellows alike, regularly using the term ecross-pollination to describe the…

Mike Frank G. Epitropoulos moved to Greece in the summer of 2005 to become chairman of the business and applied-sociology departments on a small branch campus of the University of Indianapolis, in the shadow of the Acropolis. A former sociology professor at the University of Pittsburgh, he had long wanted to live with his wife and two sons in the…

Northeastern University's continuing-education division is being rejuvenated with market research, faculty involvement, and a non-traditional approach under its new vice president Christopher E. Hopey. The college shifted its emphasis from undergraduates to graduate and certificate programs aimed at working professionals, resulting in a 20 percent…