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Nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina swept them off their campuses in and around New Orleans, thousands of college administrators, faculty members, and students began a new semester in January 2006. Students came back with a new spirit of determination to adapt to the new realities of New Orleans, and to campuses that are forever changed, with temporary housing and smaller academic programs.

Discusses how this Arab emirate is offering millions of dollars for a few U.S. colleges to open campuses there. (EV)

A new salary survey highlights concerns about the growing pay gap between professional-school faculty members and everyone else. Offers a table of average faculty salaries by field at 4-year institutions. (EV)

Describes how, as the population of elderly people continues to grow, medical schools are beefing up geriatrics programs to prepare students for their future patients. (EV)

Describes how faculty members at Baylor urged the Board of Regents to remove the president, describing a campus "marked by fear." (EV)

Describes how, after a quarter-century, James MacGregor Burns, a fellow at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, is still working to refine leadership studies in a way that could change the face of the field. (EV)

Discusses criticism asserting that when business schools and professors "cozy up" to corporations for money and real-word experience, students learn that ethics do not count. (EV)

Discusses how a movement aimed at teaching medical students to be more sensitive to patients is being criticized as emphasizing a soft-science approach over knowledgeable practice. (EV)

Reports on the founding of Ave Maria School of Law (Michigan), opening in 2000, which plans to integrate Catholic teachings into every course. Focus is on the school's founder, Thomas S. Monaghan, and the school's first dean, Bernard Dobranski, who suggest that the new school can avoid difficulties with tenured liberal professors and attract top legal scholars and students. (DB)

Drexel University (Pennsylvania) has agreed to manage Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, now known as MCP Hahnemann University (Pennsylvania) in a unique arrangement designed to save the latter institution from bankruptcy. Drexel will administer the institution until summer 2001, when it will decide to either merge or part ways. (MSE)

Qatar is offering to build schools and pay substantial sums to any college willing to start up a satellite campus in Qatar. So far, only Cornell University's Weill Medical College and the Virginia Commonwealth University have established campuses there. Fear of discrimination against Jews and women and faculty unwillingness to move there have been stumbling blocks.

As nurse practitioners increasingly move into practice areas once reserved for primary-care physicians, and as medical schools move more toward general practice and primary care, medical and nursing students are competing for a limited number of slots in which they can receive on-the-job clinical instruction. With professional boundaries overlapping, confusion about roles and problems with cooperation have resulted. (MSE)

Discusses two law schools that are offering Saturday-Sunday programs, with other schools interested in doing so; accreditors are raising objections, however. (EV)

The ethics of business schools and their professors are in question because of the money they received from corporations like Enron. Some question whether universities that received generous donations and professors who accepted directorships were objective in their assessment of corporations accused of wrongdoing.

This article discusses the plans of Drexel University to manage the bankrupt Allegheny University of Health Sciences. Topics addressed include the potential for investments in the health care industry, the controversy over management of the medical school, and the problems that face the medical institution, such as lack of patient confidence, declining student applications, and low employee morale.

In an effort to diversify their investments, colleges are pouring money into hotels, shopping centers, research parks, and apartment buildings. Institutional involvement in real estate takes a variety of forms, some considered risky, and has resulted in both profit and public-relations problems. (MSE)

While the tenure system remains in place in most colleges, and may be reviving in some cases, many institutions are rethinking policies and procedures, including more stringent requirements, a cap on tenured faculty, and more rigorous evaluation. Facing a faculty shortage, many institutions are reluctant to change too much. (MSE)

Medical colleges and nursing schools increasingly cooperate to train primary care physicians and nurse practitioners. Supporters of the policy believe it enables physicians and advanced practice nurses to work together more effectively after graduation, by heightening medical students' communications skills and nurses' scientific knowledge. These interdisciplinary programs, which include joint classroom instruction and clinical training, are offered at schools such as Columbia University, East Tennessee State University, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Lani Guinier contends the Socratic method of teaching commonly used in most law schools unfairly discriminates against women students. Guinier feels students learn better in a non-threatening atmosphere, and that women feel threatened when challenged by a professor. Some law professors defend the Socratic method as an important method for helping students acquire qualities lawyers need.

A poem entitled 'RRacist' by graduate student Fabian Vaksman at the University of Houston has alarmed and upset faculty members for its depiction of violent attacks against five history professors by an angry student. Security at the university has been increased and the professors have altered their teaching schedules. The 316-page poem has been dismissed as a work of fiction by the author, who has been involved in a dispute with the university for several years. The matter is being investigated by the police, with the case generating an important debate on the limits of free speech.

Incarnate Word College Pres Louis J. Agnese's advertising campaign has succeeded in piercing public consciousness about the merits of the Texas school. Faculty and students express mixed reactions about the president's unorthodox methods but recent school statistics show increases in enrollments in both graduate and undergraduate courses and a rise in college endowment. Agnese capitalized on promoting the school's dedicated faculty and its goal of educating people to become responsible citizens.

The economic recession in the US has severely affected the academe. Increasedenrollment could have resulted in more faculty jobs but since most colleges anduniversities do not have enough funds for faculty expansion, vacant positions are left unfilled, instructors are hired on a contractual basis and some faculty members are dismissed. Community colleges are hardest hit by the budgetary problems. Universities can increase tuition to offset the decline in income but state-funded institutions cannot resort to such action. Educators can only hope for a better economy in the years to come.

Describes the new Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering's innovative approach to engineering education, including integrating art and entrepreneurship into the curriculum. (EV)

Describes how the competition for top students for business and law schools has become so fierce that recruiters are perfecting the "hard sell." (EV)

Describes how business schools are redesigning their curricula, forging closer ties with businesses, and giving students more freedom to customize their degrees. (EV)

Describes how a rise in rates for medical malpractice insurance is forcing some physicians to suspend their practices, shrinking the pool of instructors for medical students. (EV)

Describes how law reviews are debating whether to change the qualification rules and competitions so that more minority students are admitted as members. (EV)

Describes the campus rallies and teach-ins that occurred as students and scholars responded to the attack on Iraq. (EV)

Describes how this year's business-school graduates are settling for second-choice jobs, if they find work at all. (EV)

Discusses how professional schools, except for medicine, are reporting surges in applications and enrollments, as graduating seniors decide to avoid the job market. (EV)

Describes how many colleges are constructing new business school facilities to lure students and financial support. (EV)

Describes how around the world, more admissions officers are finding that they must check documents submitted by foreign students. (EV)

Describes how, for online Master's of Business Administration programs, enrollments are low and business deals are falling through. Despite initial hype, expectations are now lower in the face of economic uncertainty; programs partnering with businesses and school-run programs both face challenges. (EV)

Discusses how professional schools, faced with a shortage of students and an increased demand for cross-disciplinary training, are teaming up to offer joint degrees. Examples include joint medical and business degrees, joint social work and law degrees, and joint medical and law degrees. (EV)

Describes how Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts is using a $500 million pledge, a nontenured faculty, and a group of top students to help develop a new kind of institution, the first independent, four-year engineering college created in 40 years. (EV)

Explores how the collapse of dot-coms has produced an increase in applications to business schools. Students previously interested in start-up companies, along with recruiters previously interested in young, non-traditionally educated employees, are rethinking the value of a business degree. (EV)

Describes reasons for a shortage in pharmacy students, including increasing demand for the services of pharmacists, a longer degree program, a strong economy, and poor working conditions. (EV)

Describes how a growing number of top business schools, after years of trying to outdo one another, are joining forces in various academic programs. An example is the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, which has created a West-coast campus and partnership with INSEAD in France. Discusses how such partnerships present special problems. (EV)

Discusses how business schools, expanding their course offerings to meet student demands, are engaged in a bidding war to employ the few new Ph.D.s in the field. (EV)

Addresses aviation training requirements for pilots planning to fly for commercial airlines within or outside the United States. Describes two aviation training programs at Western Michigan University, a fast-track 13-month program and the traditional four-year program required for U.S. pilots. Notes that decreasing numbers of pilots trained in the military may force U.S. acceptance of the fast-track approach. (DB)

Discusses a protest by students at the University of Illinois (Urbana) College of Veterinary Medicine over the killing of animals that led to temporary curtailing of lethal animal experiments. Examines the conflict between animal rights groups and some faculty who are openly skeptical about the effectiveness of alternatives to the hands-on experience provided by the laboratories. (DB)

Guidelines developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges limit racial preferences for admissions and scholarships to students from only four designated minority groups, depriving students from other ethnicities from affirmative action eligibility. Discusses the implications for student diversity of changes in this policy. (SLD)

Reports a high demand at law schools for courses on Internet issues, Cyberlaw, but notes that some critics question whether the topic warrants its own specialty. Suggests the appeal is based on intellectual excitement about the burgeoning field, the high technology comfort level of students who grew up with the Internet, and the promise of profitable job prospects. (DB)

Describes changes in many library schools' curricula to emphasize training for high-tech careers in information management rather than traditional library skills and careers. Reports on the experience of the University of Michigan, which has restructured its library school into the new School of Information Management and Systems. (DB)

Reports that Harvard University Medical School is considering policy changes that would ease financial restrictions in its conflict-of-interest standards for faculty researchers. Supporters argue that such changes are necessary to attract and retain top researchers, but ethicists warn that as collaborations between industry and academic medicine increasingly offer large financial rewards, medical schools should be more, not less, vigilant. (DB)