Military recruiters' promise of money for college is the leading reason that civilians enlist. But many veterans fail to take advantage of the money: The education benefit of the GI Bill covers just 60 percent of the average cost of college, and during the last decade, a mere 8 percent of eligible veterans used their full benefit. Is the U.S. military misleading recruits by promising to pay for college? Does the country have a special obligation to pay for veterans' education? If so, how can the benefit keep up with rising college costs? (5/12/2005)

Cries that the institution of marriage is crumbling are nothing new; for thousands of years people have longed for an illusory past when "traditional" marriages were the norm. But, the historian Stephanie Coontz argues, spousal relationships and the overall place of marriage in society have changed, with implications for work, leisure, sexuality, child rearing, and care for the elderly. Which changes are positive, and which negative? Should efforts be made to strengthen marriage and, if so, how? (5/5/2005)

APRIL 2005

Students' and professors' freedom of speech, military recruiting on campuses, alleged racial or gender bias ~~ the ideological debates that were once confined to the ivory tower now quickly become fodder for partisan muckrakers, thanks in part to e-mail and blogs. How can college and university presidents prevent minor incidents on their campuses from blowing up into public-relations nightmares? And once they are flooded with e-mail messages and calls from the news media, how can they respond both quickly and accurately? (4/28/2005)

Floods of e-mail messages, the proliferation of academic blogs, and the omnipresence of cellphones and, um, online discussions leave many scholars and administrators feeling overwhelmed by information. Few would want to do without communication technologies altogether, but do such technologies threaten the quality of research and teaching? What strategies can people use to manage information overload? (4/21/2005)

Dog owners will tell you how smart their pets are, but, until recently, scientists did not put much stock in canine intelligence. Now researchers in Hungary have found that dogs can predict social events, provide and request information, and imitate human actions. They say that the process of domestication made dogs smarter than their wolf cousins. Critics, though, say the dogs' behaviors do not show sophisticated cognitive processing. How intelligent are dogs? And are researchers barking up the wrong tree with their conclusions? (4/14/2005)

Anyone who has studied mathematics, engineering, computer science, or economics at an American university in the past decade has probably had an instructor whose accented English made lectures a challenge to comprehend. Who is to blame when such communication breakdowns occur? Are universities not doing enough to initiate foreign teaching assistants into the ways of the American classroom? Or are American students simply too lazy to tackle the added challenge of deciphering English that is different from theirs? (4/7/2005)

MARCH 2005

Last year Harvard University made headlines when it announced a plan to change its core curriculum. This year the Association of American Colleges and Universities has begun trying to spark discussion of what a "liberal education" is across different types of institutions. Can such efforts succeed? Or do the specialization of disciplines (and the faculty members who teach them), the explosion of knowledge, and changes in the nature of the university preclude substantial change? (3/31/2005)

Fifteen U.S. agencies have begun to offer university scholarships to people who are training to become intelligence analysts. The pilot project has been hailed by some as a long-overdue effort to bring people with strong language skills, cultural knowledge, and technical expertise into the CIA and its sibling agencies. But other scholars are worried that the analysts in training, whose names are not made public, will compromise scholarly ethics. Will the program turn fieldwork abroad into spying? Can secrecy coexist with academic openness? (3/23/2005)

An increasing number of colleges are helping to create high-school programs that offer disadvantaged students personal instruction and postsecondary courses. Some officials view the programs as pipelines for qualified minority applicants who would otherwise require remedial courses once they enrolled at a four-year institution. Do the programs work? Should more colleges start them? (3/10/2005)

Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers, recently ignited a firestorm of protests by saying that "intrinsic" differences between the sexes may explain why so few women rise in math and science. But a growing body of research suggests that genetic factors predispose women to avoid those fields. How should colleges respond? And do some academics owe Mr. Summers an apology? (3/4/2005)

FEBRUARY 2005

JANUARY 2005

Should student groups be required to respect campus nondiscrimination rules? Conservative Christian groups say they should be allowed to restrict membership to heterosexual students who share their faith. But others say that if groups discriminate, they should not receive funds and other support from their colleges. Which should take precedence -- religious freedom or protection from discrimination? (1/27/2005)

Bush-administration officials were laying the groundwork for the use of torture long before Abu Ghraib, according to a new book. The book, compiled by university researchers, asserts that a policy to extract information from suspected terrorists became a legal rationale for abuse. In a time of war against ruthless enemies, should the book not have been published? Or does it show the importance of the principles that we are defending? (1/20/2005)

Most selective colleges give an admissions edge to applicants who are the children of their employees. The colleges view the practice as an important employee benefit. But critics see it as another way in which students who shouldn't need preferences to get into college, such as the children of alumni and donors, receive them anyway and make their campuses less diverse. Should colleges award special consideration to such applicants? (1/13/2005)

The U.S. Education Department is updating its formula for assessing students' eligibility for Pell Grants. The change will disqualify some 90,000 students and cut the grants for 1.3 million others. Critics say the change is a betrayal of needy students. The department and its supporters in Congress say the change is required by law and needed to save money. Who is correct? Whose interests are served by the change? Will it help or hurt students? (1/5/2005)

DECEMBER 2004

In a surprising decision, a U.S. appeals court ruled last week that colleges' free-speech rights were violated by a law, known as the Solomon Amendment, that would deny them federal funds if they banned military recruiters from their campuses. The colleges have sought to bar the recruiters because they say the military's antigay policies violate campus antidiscrimination codes. Assuming the ruling stands, who really won in the case? (12/10/2004)

Nancy Hopkins, a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first complained that gender bias had derailed her career more than a decade ago. She has since become a national spokeswoman on the problems female faculty members face at major research universities. Why have those institutions been so slow to hire women? What, if anything, should the universities do differently? Will there ever be gender equity in academe? (12/3/2004)

NOVEMBER 2004

Lloyd Thacker, a former guidance counselor, says he is on a mission to help students, high schools, and colleges overcome "commercial interference" in higher education and to promote ethical practices in admissions. His arguments have won him a following, but can he ever hope to make headway in his struggle against the status quo? (11/18/2004)

Colleges have spent millions on high-tech classrooms but a lot less on training professors how to use them. As a result, students say, technology has made some professors even worse teachers. Is more training the solution to this costly problem? Or were colleges' decisions to buy all that technology showy but misdirected moves? (11/11/2004)

Will student voters have the impact on this week's election that some observers predicted? What accounts for the difference, if any, between those predictions and the actual results? Does that herald any change in the political power held by students -- or the attention paid to them by politician (11/4/2004)

OCTOBER 2004

(10/28/2004)

Colleges have significantly raised their spending on lobbying the federal government in recent years, as more college officials have looked to Washington to help pay for new programs and buildings. In particular, lesser-known public colleges have aggressively pressed for legislation and directed Congressional grants, or earmarks, that would benefit their institutions. Is the payoff for colleges worth the cost of hiring lobbyists? Can colleges achieve the same success without a lobbyist? (10/21/2004)

In the past decade, college campuses have become the preferred sites for the quadrennial presidential and vice-presidential debates. Colleges pay a hefty fee upfront, and then spend a lot of money providing facilities and a support staff for the debates. In return, the institutions get visibility in the national news media. What does it take for a college to play host to a presidential debate? Is the cost worth the publicity payoff? (10/14/2004)

Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, foreign enrollment at American colleges has been flat. It may even be down this year. Are long waits for visa approvals discouraging foreign students from applying to study in the United States, or does stepped-up recruiting by other countries account for much of the shift? Are the visa restrictions unnecessarily draconian, or are they a needed precaution? What is at stake for America? (10/7/2004)

SEPTEMBER 2004

Is the Bush policy of providing federal funds for research on only a limited set of embryonic stem cells having the harmful effect that some scientists say it is? If California voters pass a ballot measure to provide state funds for stem-cell research, what will it mean for the field? Will researchers flock to California? (9/30/2004)

Are such right-wing professors as oppressed as they say are? Or are they passing themselves off as victims to further their own cause? (9/23/2004)

Are students becoming less civil? Can bad behavior undermine good teaching? What can professors do to make their classes listen and learn? (9/15/2004)

Has academic freedom fallen victim to post-September 11 efforts to safeguard the country's borders? For some people, the U.S. government's revoking of a visa for Tariq Ramadan, a controversial Muslim scholar, has raised such questions. Are their concerns valid? Why do other people consider him such a threat? (9/9/2004)

North Korea has probably already constructed at least one nuclear weapon, and Iran might soon follow suit. How worried should we be about the spread of nuclear weapons? Some scholars say very. Others say more nukes equal more security. Whom should we believe? (9/1/2004)

AUGUST 2004

A handful of professors are among the 380,000 military reservists who have been called to active duty since September 11, 2001. How have campuses coped with professors' absence, and how has their time away affected their academic careers? (8/4/2004)

JULY 2004

The National Labor Relations Board ruled this month that teaching and research assistants are not employees and are therefore not covered by federal labor law. What does the ruling mean for graduate students and the labor movement? (7/28/2004)

Indiana University Press's withdrawal of a scholarly book is just the latest example of copyright claims trumping scholarship. Just what use are "fair use" provisions in copyright law if presses lack the wherewithal to challenge such claims? What steps can be taken by scholars to protect fair use? (7/14/2004)

Three colleges recently removed the faculty advisers to their student newspapers, showing how vulnerable the position is. What should the advisers' mission be, and can they fulfill that goal, motivate their students, and avoid antagonizing college officials? (7/1/2004)

JUNE 2004

Diploma mills continue to churn out new "graduates" every day. What should legitimate colleges do about them? Is government action called for? (6/24/2004)

The American Association of University Professors has named its first new general secretary in a decade. The group's guidelines, including some statements from before World War II, are the bedrock of any discussion of academic freedom, shared governance, and tenure. But is the 90-year-old association still relevant to higher education in 2004? (6/9/2004)

A half-century after the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the epic tale of a heroic quest in a quasi-medieval world is more popular than ever, fueled in part by a blockbuster film adaptation. Now scholars of Tolkien are seeking respect for their work in academe. Can their quest succeed? (6/3/2004)

MAY 2004

What are the biggest mistakes that endowment managers make? What relationship should an endowment's size bear to its investment strategies? In this week's Chronicle, an endowment expert offers his answers. What advice did he leave out? (5/27/2004)

Gyrating in the end zone after touchdowns, yelling at referees, and intentionally fouling opponents have become normal behaviors in professional sports, and they have seeped into college sports too. To deal with the problem, one Division III conference tracks personal-conduct fouls by players and coaches. Is that a good solution? What else should colleges do to promote fair play and mutual respect among their teams? (5/20/2004)

Thousands of dollars' worth of hardware left to molder on loading docks. Duplicate site licenses that add up to $300,000 in unnecessary charges. Information-technology staff members who report to no one. Colleges are wasting a lot of money on technology, says one expert. Is that really true? What should be done about it? (5/13/2004)

More than half a century has passed since Russell Kirk defined the intellectual legacy of the American right with his book The Conservative Mind. Today, some scholars ask, is the political success of the conservative movement consistent with the principles of one of its founding fathers? (5/6/2004)

APRIL 2004

With declining state support, increasing student demand, and heavy turnover among their leaders, community colleges are truly feeling a pinch. Can they continue to maintain their multiple missions, including providing college access to all who seek it? (4/29/2004)

On college campuses, where three out of four faculty members are married, single professors feel isolated and even discriminated against. Should universities consider changes in how unmarried professors are treated, to level the playing field? (4/22/2004)

The National Institute of Mental Health sponsors an array of research projects that critics say are at best only indirectly related to finding treatments for people suffering severe mental illnesses. One critic says the skewed research priorities have turned the institute into a "jobs program" for academic psychologists. Is that critique on the mark? Should the institute, backed by a recent 100-percent increase in its budget, focus more on clinical research and less on basic research? (4/14/2004)

At least a dozen conservative Roman Catholic colleges have been created or conceived in recent years in the United States. Is their unquestioning obedience to Vatican doctrine a strength or a weakness? Are they, as their supporters often claim, more faithful to the Catholic tradition than most established Catholic colleges? How can their success be measured? (4/7/2004)

At the same time that the policy makers are weighing proposals to penalize or reward colleges based on their graduation rates, a new report from the U.S. Education Department contends that graduation rates are an unreliable measure of colleges' performance. Is the report correct? If not, why not? If so, are there better gauges of performance that could be used? (4/1/2004)

MARCH 2004

Public and private universities share a higher-education mission, but their approaches diverge on the value they place on private and public space. What are the roots of that divergence, and are the varying approaches justifiable? What can private colleges learn from public universities? And can public institutions learn from private ones? (3/24/2004)

Colleges are spending increasing amounts of time and money to fight computer worms and viruses. What can security experts do to combat the spread of infections on college networks? (3/17/2004)

Has the heightened security put in place after September 11, 2001, persuaded more foreigners, particularly prospective graduate students, to not even bother applying to U.S. colleges? (3/11/2004)

A report issued last month by 60 prominent scientists, educators, and Nobel laureates said the Bush administration has deliberately manipulated or ignored research findings affecting federal regulations when the findings have been at odds with White House goals. Has President Bush politicized science, or is the report an example of partisan politics, as the administration charges? (3/5/2004)

FEBRUARY 2004

A study by a prominent researcher warning of the dangers of Ecstasy was retracted last September after it was revealed that primates in the study had been injected with a different drug. What does this mean for the future of Ecstasy research? What are the implications for U.S. drug policy? (2/25/2004)

Conservative activists are urging lawmakers, college administrators, and student-government leaders to adopt policies that would promote "intellectual diversity" on campuses and protect students and faculty members with unpopular political and religious views. How necessary are such efforts? What would be their ramifications on campus climates, classroom discussions, and academic scholarship? (2/18/2004)

More than 17 million residents of the United States were born in Latin America. To what extent is this huge new wave of immigrants moving into the mainstream of American economic, political, and cultural life? What are the strengths and weaknesses of traditional social-scientific models of "assimilation"? (2/11/2004)

How should college and college-foundation boards handle business deals between their higher-education institutions and their members' companies? Are current procedures for college boards sufficient? If not, what changes should be made? (2/5/2004)

JANUARY 2004

Will the movement to make journal subscriptions free revolutionize scientific publishing? And will it save universities money? (1/29/2004)

Why do so many women in physics departments feel alienated from the discipline -- and from their male colleagues? And what can faculty members and administrators do to deal with the problem? (1/21/2004)

Why do so many graduate students leave their Ph.D. programs without getting their degrees? And what can administrators and faculty members do to deal with the problem? (1/15/2004)

What obligation, if any, do college officials have to assist the recording industry in tracking and punishing students who use college networks to swap music online in violation of copyright law? (1/8/2004)

DECEMBER 2003

How will colleges and universities negotiate a rocky business landscape in the coming year? (12/18/2003)

For years community colleges have enrolled all students who came through the door. Is it time to rethink that policy? (12/11/2003)

Why is managing children and an academic career so much more difficult for women than men? What, if anything, should colleges and universities do to make it easier? (12/5/2003)

NOVEMBER 2003

How relevant is the legacy of Jean-Paul Sartre -- "the philosopher of the 20th century," according to one recent book -- to the 21st century? Do his ideas about freedom, violence, and human existence offer an alternative to postmodern thought? (11/21/2003)

Are college presidents paid too much or too little? With some salaries now approaching $1-million, what is the justification for the increases in presidential compensation? (11/13/2003)

OCTOBER 2003

Should new types of psychotherapy be subject to a Food and Drug Administration-style system of testing and approval? Or would such testing lead to a lifeless color-by-numbers model of psychotherapy? (10/23/2003)

SEPTEMBER 2003

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APRIL 2003

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DECEMBER 2002

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OCTOBER 2002

SEPTEMBER 2002

AUGUST 2002

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SEPTEMBER 2001

AUGUST 2001

JULY 2001

JUNE 2001

(6/21/2001)

(6/14/2001)

MAY 2001

How can classics departments attract more undergraduates? (5/24/2001)

Have librarians have been too quick to throw out books and newspapers once they have obtained microfilmed or digitized copies? Is the rush from print to electronic archives proceeding too hastily? (5/15/2001)

How can complexity theory reshape the way scholars examine evolution, economics, and many other fields? (5/10/2001)

What does The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism say about the state of literary criticism today? How will the editors' choices shape the place of theory in the academy? (5/3/2001)

APRIL 2001

How can colleges regulate bandwidth use in an era when many students take file-sharing services for granted? What risks do colleges face from the popularity of the new file-sharing services? (4/25/2001)

How significant is the growing salary gap between faculty members at public and private universities? What can public universities do about it? (4/19/2001)

Is grade inflation out of control at leading colleges? Are college administrators reluctant to do anything about the issue? (4/5/2001)

MARCH 2001

values of racial sensitivity and free expression? (3/28/2001)

What are the top issues facing the states with respect to higher education? How can governors and legislators improve higher education? (3/22/2001)

What should states do about unaccredited colleges that operate within their borders or online? Do current regulations do enough to protect students from enrolling at institutions that may not provide them with a real education? (3/21/2001)

Will the agreement under which New York University became the first private university to agree to negotiate with a union for teaching assistants pave the way for more collective bargaining by graduate students? How did N.Y.U. and the union reach the agreement? (3/15/2001)

Are journal publishers charging too much for subscriptions while failing to compensate authors and reviewers for their efforts? Could a new publishing model successfully challenge the dominance of the industry giants? (3/7/2001)

FEBRUARY 2001

How should educators respond to calls to eliminate the SAT? How does the current debate over the SAT fit into the exam's historic role? (2/28/2001)

How should academic researchers respond to the renewed federal push to create a missile-defense system? Could such a system be viable? (2/22/2001)

How can universities attract more minority Ph.D. candidates in mathematics and science and help those candidates earn their doctorates? (2/15/2001)

Are any colleges making money on distance education? How can colleges determine the costs of their distance-education programs? (2/14/2001)

Does intercollegiate athletics hurt the quality of academics at liberal-arts colleges? (2/1/2001)

JANUARY 2001

A discussion with the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh (1/31/2001)

Web-Based Education Commission. (1/25/2001)

Should colleges be spending as much money as they are to hire world-class architects to design campus buildings? Are colleges prepared for the issues they face in managing such projects? (1/25/2001)

Are state merit-scholarship programs working? What impact are they having on student-aid policy? (1/18/2001)

Are too many of the best new psychology Ph.D.'s taking jobs in industry rather than in academe? How should Ph.D. programs respond to the increased interest of their graduate students in working for industry? (1/11/2001)

DECEMBER 2000

for teaching at these new kinds of institutions? (12/14/2000)

Are new grades that a research center has given to states for higher education fair? How should states be evaluated when it comes to higher education? (12/7/2000)

NOVEMBER 2000

What do new data about who teaches humanities courses say about American higher education and the way part-time faculty members are treated? How should academe respond to these data? (11/30/2000)

How is distance education changing community colleges? What are the key issues that community colleges need to consider about distance education? (11/17/2000)

James Hansen, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, responds to questions and comments about his ideas and the debate over global warming. (11/9/2000)

What should colleges do, if anything, to attract more male students? (11/1/2000)

OCTOBER 2000

An online discussion of a controversial new book, The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls. (10/25/2000)

What are the major challenges -- technological, legal, political, or financial -- facing academe in the era of the Internet? How can campus computing officials secure greater support from administrators, faculty members, and students for network projects? (10/11/2000)

Is women's studies gaining more acceptance or being rejected in academe? Are scholars in women's studies still trying to either grandly create a better world or wallow in victimhood? (10/4/2000)

SEPTEMBER 2000

How serious are the new allegations about misconduct by anthropologists who studied the Yanomami, an Amazon tribe? How should anthropologists respond to these allegations? How can anthropologists ensure that they do not harm the people they study? (9/28/2000)

Can faculty unions use collective bargaining and the threat of strikes to limit the hiring of lecturers and to create more full-time faculty slots? (9/21/2000)

Is the increasing emphasis among colleges on becoming more selective hurting the future of the country? (9/15/2000)

How will changes in the publishing industry affect its relationship to higher education? (9/7/2000)

AUGUST 2000

How will the U.S. Army's drive into distance education change the online-learning industry? Will colleges benefit from this push? (8/29/2000)

How will the growth of Sallie Mae affect students, colleges, and the future of student loans? (8/9/2000)

JULY 2000

When faculty members develop software, do they own the rights, or do their colleges own the rights? (7/20/2000)

undercut the personal nature of liberal-arts education? (7/5/2000)

JUNE 2000

Has George W. Bush been a good governor for higher education in Texas? What does his record say about how he would treat higher education if he is elected president? (6/22/2000)

As more elite colleges hire female provosts, will women become candidates for presidencies at the nation's top colleges and universities? What issues face women seeking senior administrative jobs at these institutions? (6/14/2000)

When colleges create independent, for-profit divisions to handle distance education, do faculty members lose their control over the curriculum? How involved should faculty members be in setting institutions' direction for distance education? (6/7/2000)

MAY 2000

Should colleges use class rank to provide top students with automatic admission to public colleges -- regardless of the rigor of high schools? Are plans to use class rank in California, Florida, and Texas reasonable alternatives to affirmative action or just an end run around bans on racial preferences? (5/31/2000)

Should students in distance education be able to receive technical help on a 24-7 basis? How can colleges meet the demand for such assistance without breaking their budgets? (5/25/2000)

Where is black studies headed? What is the significance of the field's renewed emphasis on activism? A discussion with two leading scholars in the field. (5/18/2000)

A discussion on situations at Tufts University and Middlebury College, where the colleges find themselves in the middle of contentious debates over gay rights and religious freedom. (5/11/2000)

APRIL 2000

A discussion on how faculty members' digital scholarship and teaching should be evaluated, with Christine Maitland, the higher-education coordinator for the National Education Association. (4/27/2000)

A discussion of how academic couples can navigate the difficult job market and land positions in the same city, with Jane Lubchenco, a professor at Oregon State University. (4/19/2000)

A discussion about genetically altered foods with James N. Siedow, a plant biologist at Duke University (4/13/2000)