This article provides suggestions on how colleges can keep strategic plans on course in a stormy economy. These are: (1) Move quickly; (2) Develop contingencies; (3) Be flexible; (4) Make hard choices; and (5) Recognize opportunities.

This article describes five organizational policies and behavior that put personal information in jeopardy. These are: (1) Inadequate security for old data; (2) Shadow systems and unregulated servers; (3) Unsophisticated privacy policies; (4) Improper use of Social Security numbers; and (5) Unsanitized old hard drives. Although the academic…

The Fulbright Program is one of the most successful fellowship programs around. About 1,500 students and 1,300 scholars from the United States and abroad are studying and working on Fulbrights this academic year. But the U.S. State Department, which oversees the program, has been concerned in recent years about the lack of diversity among American…

A group of major universities has been quietly working for the past two years to build one of the largest online collections of books ever assembled, by pooling the millions of volumes that Google has scanned in its partnership with university libraries. One of the most important functions of the project, say its leaders, who unveiled the giant…

Eight years ago, Texas Tech University started a financial-literacy program to help its students master the basics of budgeting, saving, and not buying what they can not afford. Now, as colleges grapple with rising costs and an economic downturn, the university has found itself at the forefront of a growing effort to sharpen students' financial…

Grade inflation is among the oldest and thorniest problems in higher education. In 1894 a committee at Harvard University reported that A's and B's were awarded "too readily." But after more than a century of fulmination, there is little agreement on the cause or how to fix it. There is even contentious debate about whether the phenomenon of grade…

This article reports that the facilities arms race in college sports has a new frontier: academic-services buildings. Over the past decade, a dozen major college programs have built stand-alone academic centers, most of them for the exclusive use of athletes. At least seven more colleges are planning new buildings or major renovations in coming…

A gentleman does not steal horses, spit food across the table, or pee on peoples' shoes. By that definition, John "Bluto" Blutarsky is not a gentleman, but something more extraordinary. The fictional antihero of "National Lampoon's Animal House," Bluto is a slovenly symbol of irreverence, a bloated personification of the id. Bored by the past and…

College presidents have long gotten flak for refusing to take controversial stands on national issues. A large group of presidents opened an emotionally charged national debate on the drinking age. In doing so, they triggered an avalanche of news-media coverage and a fierce backlash. While the criticism may sting, the prime-time fracas may help…

At campuses across the country, freshmen are moving in and reluctant parents are moving on. Few of them enjoy the kind of welcome Rice provides for its 790 incoming freshmen. In this article, the author describes how Rice University welcomes its freshmen and shares some of the experiences the students had when student football athletes helped them…

More colleges are making sustainability programs a high priority, putting more resources into energy-conservation efforts, and setting goals to reduce carbon emissions, according to survey results released by the National Wildlife Federation. Given the popularity of all things green, that is not surprising. The surprising part of the federation's…

This summer, Forbes magazine published its new rankings of "America's Best Colleges," implying that it had developed a methodology that would give the public the information that it needed to choose a college wisely. "U.S. News & World Report," which in 1983 published the first annual ranking, just announced its latest ratings last week--including…

This paper reports on an entrepreneurial camp at Texas A&M's Mays Business School for disabled veterans. The program began at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management last year and expanded this summer to Texas A&M, the University of California at Los Angeles, and Florida State University, all of which completed camps for 16 to 20…

Over the past decade, partnerships between a university and a private company to recruit and educate foreign students in a college-preparatory program have become a commonplace in other English-speaking countries. The reason is clear: pathways programs enable colleges to tap into a much broader pool of students, including those who may not qualify…

Is academic freedom a philosophical concept tied to larger concepts of individual dignity and autonomy, or is it a guild concept developed in an effort to insulate the enterprise from the threat of a hostile takeover? In this article, the author contends that academic freedom is a professional requirement, not a divine right. It should be advanced…