Social scientists are increasingly recognizing that cultural context influences attitudes about the body, and that those attitudes change over time, affecting experience, policy, and social theory. The approach is currently significant because scientific advances and social and medical issues make the body a subject of political debate. (MSE)

Donations to education rose considerably higher than inflation last year, unlike giving in most other areas. Factors fueling a slowdown in giving include recession, a sluggish stock market, a slowed rate of increase in the population of Americans aged 35 to 64, and a declining rate in personal income growth. (MSE)

Since a team of University of Florida doctors invented Gatorade in 1965, the university has been involved in five separate court actions concerning contract disputes over the drink. The latest involves creation of a new drink by a different team of researchers that includes an original Gatorade inventor. (MSE)

The 64 colleges and universities enrolling the largest numbers of National Merit Scholars are ranked, giving both the number of scholars attending and the number whose scholarships are paid for by the institution. Overall, 3,814 freshman Merit Scholars were enrolled at 247 private institutions and 2,728 at 156 public institutions. (MSE)

The article describes Temple University's doctoral program in African-American studies, notes the awarding of the first Ph.D. in the program, and discusses controversy surrounding the Afrocentric emphasis of the program. (DB)

The article reports on efforts of scholars (including historians, political scientists, economists, and sociologists) to study the economic and political transformation taking place in Eastern Europe. Noted are analogies with Latin American development, difficulties of privatization, and contradictions between democracy and economic reform. (DB)

The article examines the controversy between traditionalists and multiculturalists in revising the literary canon, and advocates replacement of traditionalist assumptions of universalism in literature with recognition of the various identities of readers, especially in light of substantial bodies of work by minority writers. (DB)

Insufficient funding for college work-study programs, increased student loan defaults, unanticipated deficits in the federal Pell Grant program, and the climate of recession are creating serious problems for student financial aid. Some fear enrollments will be affected and federal programs will be further reduced. (MSE)

A recent report indicates that at public colleges and universities, business and management professors receive the highest salaries. At private institutions, engineering faculty remain the highest paid. Lowest-paid faculty remain the same. Collective bargaining affected pay raises. Private and public institution average salaries are tabulated, by…

A project at the University of California at Berkeley is aimed at creating computerized catalogs of special collections throughout the institution, from departments to museums, to improve access for both scholars and laypeople. The project combines imaging and text records. Eventually, 80 or more collections may be included. (MSE)

Two studies found that, although the nation's wealthiest gave a smaller proportion of earnings to charity in the 1980s, the number of wealthy donors has increased. Tax law changes had less effect than predicted. Generosity appears divided between a few who give a lot and many who give little. (MSE)

Although African Americans comprise almost one-quarter of all scholarship athletes at Division I colleges and universities, they constitute only 6 percent of full-time undergraduates there. Figures trouble academics, experts on race, and other higher education observers. The trend may reinforce stereotypes and demoralize students. More aggressive…

A faculty member at the California Institute of Technology designs and teaches classes in computer animation that have helped revolutionize the way mathematics is taught through television and videotapes. The programs are widely used in high schools and colleges. Humor differentiates this work from other instructional packages. (MSE)

Data on total undergraduate enrollments, scholarship athletes, football scholarship athletes, and men's basketball scholarship athletes, and percentage of each group that are African Americans, are tabulated for 245 institutions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. (MSE)

The American Association of University Professors has censured the administrations of five colleges (Chowan College, Dean Junior College, Wesley College, New Community College of Baltimore, and Loma Linda University) for breaches of faculty rights. Censure was lifted for the Colorado School of Mines, the University of Northern Colorado, Sonoma…