Describes how Morris Brown College in Atlanta exemplifies the financial plight of many small, historically black institutions. (EV)

Discusses how California State University's $400-million effort to centralize administrative computing has led to controversy not only over the cost, but also over pressure on individual colleges to change policies. (EV)

Discusses how an academic review of the football teams that competed in this year's bowl games shows that many universities allow players to take an easy path to a degree. (EV)

Describes a new book that argues that faculties lack diversity in part because affirmative action has led many minority students to enroll at colleges where they do not do well enough to go on to Ph.Ds. (EV)

Discusses how two affirmative action cases before the Supreme Court involving a public university (the University of Michigan) are expected to also affect private colleges in terms of admissions and financial aid. (EV)

Describes how a handful of institutions are experimenting with computer simulations to offer hard science labs through distance education. (EV)

An annual survey finds that more freshmen are showing an interest in politics and the arts, while fewer are attending their first-choice institution. (EV)

Describes Emory's Emeritus College, conceived as a cure for the isolation that many professors feel in retirement and now one of a growing number of programs that keep them involved in campus life. (EV)

Describes how $850 million from private technology companies and the state have begun pouring into nanoscience at SUNY-Albany. (EV)

Describes how a long-predicted decline in the fortunes of small private colleges is beginning to show up in the bond market, as the number of colleges now rated in the junk category has nearly doubled. (EV)

Describes how, for a few hundred dollars, people visiting a burgeoning number of Web sites can buy "authentic looking" documents indicating that they graduated from the college of their choice. (EV)

Discusses how new studies indicate that high achievers indeed influence their peers academically, but that it is not always clear how. (EV)

Describes how a federal panel recommended some changes in rules for Title IX, the landmark gender-equity law, but "punted" on other issues. (EV)

The president of the University of Phoenix calls its centralized course-development process a "safety net" for instructors. Critics call it a "cookie-cutter approach." (EV)

Discusses how President Bush's 2004 budget proposal would erase the shortfall in Pell Grants, but many programs would receive no increases, and two would be eliminated. (EV)