When he was made the provost, the author relates how he didn't know what to expect. He discusses his experience in the positions and concludes that the burden of the job of provost is knowing the things that other do not or would rather not know. Much of this has to do with money and because the provost is required to know so much and talk so…

Recent efforts to deal with college affordability, including measures now before Congress, raise many questions: Why does college cost so much? How can students ever be expected to pay back their loan debt? Why does the middle class always get squeezed? America's historical commitment to the education of its citizens is perhaps the most important…

In June the U.S Climate Change Science Program, which is sponsored by 13 government agencies, released a report saying that extreme weather like heat waves, heavy downpours, and superpowered hurricanes would be more common in the future. The timing of the report--coming just as officials in Iowa were surveying the damage from the swollen Iowa…

This article reports that Congress is cranky about how colleges spend money. Over the last three years, regulation-minded lawmakers have investigated university endowments, intercollegiate athletics, and presidential pay, but that grilling has largely ceased. A presidential election has dulled legislative ambitions, and Congress has its hands full…

Lots of colleges treat students like customers. How many have an ice-cream truck? And valet parking? And a concierge desk? And an enormous hot tub in the middle of the campus? Not too many. Actually, only one: High Point University. This once-sleepy institution in the hills of North Carolina has undergone a revival in the last couple of years,…

When New Hampshire's 13 newest lawyers were sworn in to the state bar in May, the ceremony took place a day before they actually graduated from law school. This speedy swearing-in as officers of the court was part of an unorthodox program at the state's only law school, Franklin Pierce Law Center. And while their classmates and thousands of other…

Patrick A. Grant was stolen in April. A thief walked away with a laptop containing the University of Virginia biochemist's name and Social Security number, as well as those of more than 7,000 other professors, staff members, and students. The machine belonged to a university employee who had taken it off campus--and then it was simply taken. The…

This article reports on the College Art Association's decision to settle with a scholar who felt defamed by an article in one of its scholarly journals which shines a spotlight on so-called "libel tourism." When the College Art Association decided recently to settle rather than fight a possible libel action in Britain over a book review published…

This article features the Cliffs Cottage, a "showcase home" at Furman University which demonstrates the use of green technology in residential building and teaches about sustainability. Custom-built for the shelter-magazine dreams of "Southern Living," a sponsor of the home, the house seems better suited for a tony subdivision. The Cliffs Cottage…

In an effort to help reverse a decades-long decline in the number of top students entering seminaries, the Lilly Endowment invited colleges to compete for grants to be used for three related purposes: (1) to help students explore the relationship between faith and work; (2) to encourage talented students to consider entering Christian ministry;…

This article focuses on a report by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada which states that four-year public colleges in the United States have significantly more resources for teaching and research than do their counterparts in Australia, Canada, and Britain. According to the report, "Trends in Higher Education: Volume 3:…

The Minerva Consortium--named for the Roman goddess of wisdom--was introduced by Robert M. Gates, secretary of defense, in a speech before the Association of American Universities in April. Quoting the late historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who said after Sputnik's launch, in 1957, that the United States "must return to the acceptance of…

A growing chorus of critics--legislators, governors, alumni, students, parents, trustees, and others--is pressuring colleges to increase "accountability" and "transparency." The critics want colleges to measure whether they are actually achieving their core missions, especially educating undergraduates, and to give people the facts about what they…

Are university presses ready for their close-up? In a nod to Hollywood, a growing number of trade publishers are producing book trailers to promote new titles. But do video teasers have a role in university-press publishing? What about longer formats? Based on an entirely unscientific poll of publicists at 25 university presses, the answer appears…

Increasingly over the 20th century, nations, many of them newly formed as the result of the dissolution of empires, instituted those kinds of cultural-property laws and signed bilateral treaties and international conventions as means of strengthening them. Still the looting of archaeological sites continues. Iraq is but one example. Wherever…