The hometown of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has created the Blacksburg Electronic Village, a community-based computer network linking businesses, schools, and individual community members. The university, telephone company, and town established the system collaboratively in 1992, and additional grants have come to the…

President Bill Clinton used the declining default rate on college student loans as a basis for proposing tax breaks for college costs. Reduced defaults have saved taxpayer money and helped reduce the federal deficit. Over 150 colleges and universities, including 25 private institutions, risk losing eligibility for federal grant and loan programs…

Half the endowment of Macalester College (Minnesota) is controlled by the Readers Digest Association, not the college. Macalester can not sell the poorly-performing stocks. Income from the stocks supports a need-blind admissions policy. Some faculty feel the endowment should be used to further enhance the college's distinctiveness. (MSE)

An annual national survey of college freshmen (n=251,232) indicates that more students are selecting colleges for financial reasons. More also expect to go to graduate school, adding pressure to find well-paying jobs. Students are reporting higher high school grades but showing less interest in undergraduate course content. Women take on more…

Data from an annual national survey of 251,232 college freshmen are presented, including demographic and family characteristics, intended majors, educational attitudes and objectives, political attitudes, non-school activities, reasons for college attendance, probable careers, personal goals, and income. (MSE)

About 1,000 new business and management schools have opened in Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics since the collapse of Communist rule. All present appealing fronts, but many are insubstantial. Some multinational companies are using the new institutions to train local managers. At many, English is the language of instruction. An…

Across the country, students are flocking to graduate business schools that teach them how to start and run a business. About 400 schools now offer courses in entrepreneurship, and about 125 have organized entrepreneurship programs. Faculty being recruited for the programs have practical experience, but tend not to have doctorates. Many students…

H-NET (Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine) is a new, rapidly expanding international online network of scholars that was established to increase electronic mail communication among individuals. Currently, the program is devoting more attention to World Wide Web-related projects providing information and reference sources. Internal conflict…

Increasingly, in response to donor concerns, college fund raisers are purging from their files donor information that is not directly related to gifts and may be sensitive if released under subpoena for probate court or open-records laws. In some cases, the reduction in information makes fund raising more difficult. (MSE)

College applicants' increasing use of consultant services to help ensure admission to elite colleges is criticized by college admissions officers, concerned that the services assist only the wealthy, and by high school counselors who feel consultants may be dispensing bad advice or may not be committed to student needs. Some feel college…

In its annual convention, the National Collegiate Athletic Association approved details of an organizational restructuring, granted athletes the right to work during the academic year, and offered fifth-year eligibility to students unable to compete in their freshman year. More trust was experienced by delegates than in previous years. Students…

Harvard University (Massachusetts) scholar Richard P. Chait has become a leading and controversial voice on tenure reform. Chait claims he is not opposed to faculty tenure, but challenges deeply-rooted beliefs when he suggests tenure is not the only way to protect academic freedom and may not be essential in any circumstances. (MSE)

An art history video created at the Columbia University (New York) Media Center for Art History takes the art student on a computer-animated video tour of Amiens Cathedral (France) designed to make architectural history come alive by illustrating the chronology of the building's construction. The Center was established to encourage faculty to…

Proposed federal fiscal 1998 budget allocations are presented, including general changes in Education Department and other agency appropriations from the previous year and dollar amounts of appropriations for student assistance, graduate support, institutional assistance, aid to the disadvantaged, educational research and statistics, aid to…

The National Association of College and University Business Officers' annual survey of 1996 college endowment performance found the rate of return up 15.5% from the previous year, the best since 1986. The average institution had 51.6% of endowment in domestic stocks, 25.5% in domestic fixed-income investments, 9.5% in foreign stock, 5.4% in cash…