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Britain's Open University has made itself a model of flexible and efficient distance learning for non-traditional students, or those not attending classes on campus. The Open University plans to enroll American students in a sister institution in the US using its package of correspondence course materials, multimedia, and personal tutoring.

Adam Gross, an architect, has created redesign for Emory University that more than doubles the open space on campus. Gross and his firm feel buildings should form harmonious relationships with the spaces between them and reduce automobile traffic while encouraging students to walk. Gross's firm has provided redesign plans for 11 Virginia colleges and universities since 1983, at the approximate cost of between $100,000 and $600,000.

Western Governors University hopes to revolutionize the way colleges compete for students and how education is measured with a 'virtual university.' This new institution will use technology to deliver courses, which will help cut the costs of education by spreading them over large numbers of students in Utah. Many of the students who will enroll at the distant-learning university are expected to come from non-traditional and part-time student categories.

George P. Connick, president of the University of Maine, Augusta, ME, plans to make the state telecommunication network an educational institution to reach more students in Maine. Apart from being in keeping with high technological developments, the plan will help reduce tuition and state expenses. Despite these advantages, critics express doubts over its suitability.

The average profit from the investments made by universities and colleges in 1992-93 was 13.1% according to a report based on a survey of 364 institutions and conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The institutions that earned a profit had diversified their transactions by investing in small and medium sized US companies and foreign stocks and bonds. Colleges which had most of their endowments in cash had low profit margins. Colleges can increase their profits with better financial management.

This article discusses educators' skepticism over changing management of the international accrediting organization GATE. Topics include the history of GATE, organizational management and integrity.

Universities and colleges are increasingly using the services of companies providing free World Wide Web sites in exchange for allowing advertising on the campus information pages. This has brought up concerns of commercialism's effect on education and student privacy. Some students and administrators worry that marketing by these companies will become unmanageable.

The National Institutes of Health has proposed an online archive that will be devoted to clinical medicine and health studies and would be free of charge to scientists of biomedical research. Scholars will be able to post their findings and view the discoveries of their colleagues almost immediately. Paper journal publishers complain that an online database would decrease their circulation and could result in nonobjective publishing.

Stanford University has greatly profited from two patents for synthesizing music and techniques underlying genetic engineering. These successes have prompted the university to package ideas as recognizable brands so that they continue to profit from the creations after the patents expire. Stanford and Yamaha Corp. have agreed to pool over 400 patents and license them as a package with the trademark.

Campus policies do not protect the integrity of university-related research. Researchers often work as paid consultants for companies with encouragement from institutions who want faculty members to work with industry. Many professors' disclosures are kept private but some institutions require professors to make potential conflicts public in their journal articles and presentations.

MEDFORD, MASS. WITH BOATHOUSES there are always issues. Why? Simple, says Jeffrey D. Peterson, an architect who specializes in the genre: 'They're always on the water.' For designers and contractors, [...]

The Education Network of Maine has elicited both praise and criticism from students and professors but all agree that the system provides convenient classes. The network provides television broadcasts of classes from the University of Maine campus system, library, course information and other services to remote students at 80 locations around the state. Some faculty members protested against a plan to have the network become accredited as the eighth campus of the University of Maine.

Bozeman, MT, has been successful at attracting high-technology companies, not only on account of its lovely mountains and scenic tourist spots but also due to the special know-how of Montana State University. Although only an estimated 12 companies were in Gallatin County in 1985, the number has swelled to 45 in 1995. Their presence has enhanced scholarship in the area and has made great economic contributions as well. Optical technology, biofilms and bacteriology are a few of the research areas which have generated inconsiderable interest.

Graphic design students at the Montana State University have worked out a project that seeks to unite the social differences between the Black and White communities. A research project undertaken by the Montana State University and Howard University seeks to expose their students to the lives and attitudes of the Black races and their treatment by society. Students are engaged in writing about the social stigma attached with the Black communities.

Time-saving computer programs have been developed by the University of Arizona math department to teach mathematics, especially linear-algebra. They are increasingly being used by students and are free to be copied because they have not been offered on the commercial market. David Lovelock, a math professor, along with his colleagues, has developed about 100 such programs. However, at present these programs are available only on IBM-compatible computers and not Apple Macintosh computers.

The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is bound to lose $7 mil from its university housing scheme of Westchester Bluffs development. The development consisting of homes for professors has failed to attract customers due to a changing real-estate market and a drop in faculty recruitment due to reductions in state financing. As a result, UCLA has been compelled to sell the homes to the public.

The $4-billion Getty Trust launched the Art History Information Program (AHIP) in 1983 to fund research on the vital issues that will affect art and culture in the 21st century. The program currently sponsors projects involving the storage of digitized images on computer networks, the use of interactive computer data bases in art history and the development of standards and vocabularies that would allow electronic exchange between cultural institutions. The AHIP also advocates the wider participation of cultural institutions in the formation of the information superhighway.

Tennessee State University has developed a computer network that aims to provide online information services to students, businesspeople and others within the state. The Diversified Information and Assistance Network, or DIANE, was developed in 1992 and links 29 schools, businesses, organizations and community groups. In line with its mission to provide community service, the university places emphasis on reaching out to Tennessee's inner-city and disadvantaged areas. DIANE is financed through corporate contributions and federal funds.

Colleges and universities which started divesting in South Africa during the apartheid era are not willing reinvest in the new democratic South Africa. College officials feel that they have no obligation to invest in South Africa and it will be better to invest in American companies which are functioning in South Africa. Revival of scholarly contacts and student exchange programs between the universities of the two countries will be more useful than investing in South Africa.

Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, has adopted a student-centered approach to build its reputation and to deal more successfully with the financial and demographic pressures it has to face. The college, which depends on tuition revenues for funds, is focussing on improved dormitories, dinner halls and other facilities in its restructuring plans. The college has also proposed a merit-pay plan to reward professors who are committed to the welfare and proper education of students.

The budget cuts imposed on higher education has prompted various colleges and universities in the US to examine different financial strategies to cope with the increasing costs of education. In fact, a survey of several colleges and universities revealed that expenditures on student aid have been considerably reduced as part of their cost-containment programs. Furthermore, private universities have modified their admission policies to favor students who are financially capable of paying for their education.

Some educators value the options; others fear vendors set the agenda SOME ADVICE for provosts, deans, and anyone else involved with offering 'virtual college' courses: Duck. The marketing brochures, information [...]

Byline: Goldie Blumenstyk Colleges have never been very good at demonstrating how their education programs prepare their graduates for jobs, or how their research might create new jobs. That's partly [...]

Byline: SARA HEBEL, PAUL FAIN, and GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK More than 250 college leaders and trustees gathered here last week for The Chronicle's first-ever forum on presidential leadership to discuss some [...]

Byline: GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK The imminent demise of the '50-percent rule' is already fueling some new higher-education businesses. The rule, which prohibited federal financial aid for distance-education students attending less than [...]