In a student production of "Dracula" at Texas A&M University some years ago, the final scene was exceptionally dramatic. One actor stabbed another, who was playing the vampire, in the chest with a real knife. A volunteer director from the community, who was assisting the drama club, had decided that the scene required the actual weapon, not the…

A number of colleges are making a formal commitment to community service by encouraging their students to sign up for local volunteer projects, some programs are even compulsory. Critics of the new programs say that requiring community service violates the spirit of the community service ethic. (MLW)

Describes how the director of the Office of Human Research Protections has an amiable approach that emphasizes cooperation in oversight of studies with human subjects, but isn't afraid to suspend programs that violate federal regulations. (EV)

Describes how Alan C. Milstein has sued universities and scientists in an effort to protect the rights of people who volunteer as research subjects. (EV)

Susan Young, wife of the chancellor of the University of California at Los Angeles, is seen as the quintessential college president's spouse, choosing to devote herself to her husband's job. She believes the female spouses of college presidents deserve more recognition and was instrumental in pressing for spouses' benefits. (MLW)

Explores how Greg Koski's eventual successor as the chief federal overseer of protections for human research subjects will face difficult challenges from both scientists and the government. (EV)

The president of the Council on Foundations, James A. Joseph, urges educators to develop volunteers who can eliminate the causes of social problems. Colleges and universities are in a special position to instill a sense of social responsibility in students. (MLW)

Some development officers at historically black colleges are seeking strategies to cultivate white alumni for fund raising, as volunteers, and for recruiting students. The challenges are similar to those faced by predominantly white colleges in reaching black alumni. Some see racial bias as a barrier. (MSE)

Increasingly, college students are choosing to devote their spring breaks to volunteering in community services for the disadvantaged, through alternative spring-break programs administered or coordinated by colleges. Some intend to continue volunteer work after returning to campus. (MSE)

Tables showing financial support of higher education 1983-84 are presented. Purposes of support, sources of support, forms of giving, support through the annual fund, gifts of property, and corporations' matching gifts for both public and private institutions are covered. (MLW)

Tables showing voluntary sources of financial support for public and private institutions are presented. Purposes of support, sources of support, forms of giving, alumni giving, gifts of property, and corporations' matching gifts are listed. (MLW)

The Association of American Colleges has made grants totaling $135,000 for the development of pilot courses relating to philanthropy and its role in shaping the history and character of American society, preparing students for civic responsibility and public service and helping to insure the future leadership of philanthropy. (MSE)

Four investors have committed $8.5 million to start companies based on discoveries made at the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory. It may be the first venture-capital fund to market products flowing from a federal laboratory. Graduate student volunteers are doing most of the development work. (MSE)

Faculty, staff, and students at San Francisco State University (California), most of whose lives are touched by Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), have responded by rallying to help AIDS sufferers in need, by including AIDS information in courses, offering confidential testing, and becoming sensitized to gay and related issues. (MSE)

Professors and staff members of the University of Portland took the "urban plunge" when they visited the state's Adult and Family Services offices, shelters for the homeless and for battered women, an alcohol- and drug-rehabilitation center, and served lunch at two soup kitchens. A project at Notre Dame is also described. (MLW)