When a student at Carnegie Mellon University became concerned about perceived grading bias in 2005, he proposed an amendment to the university's student-rights policy. Drawn from David Horowitz's "academic bill of rights," the proposal included assertion of a student's right to have his or her "work evaluated based on the stated…

Discusses how a new law on tracking registered sex offenders has college officials pondering how widely to publicize the presence of such people on their campuses. (EV)

Describes how the University of Oregon has banned alcohol at fraternity houses, but that some members are continuing to drink. (EV)

Describes how the refusals of Princeton and Brown to follow restrictions on early-admissions programs have put the universities at odds with a national admissions association, and left applicants in the middle. (EV)

Following the mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, the author has repeatedly been asked, as a former director of the Student Counseling and Resource Service at the University of Chicago and clinical associate professor of psychiatry, two questions: "Could this have been prevented?" and "How can we ensure that it…

Reports on conflicts between student religious groups and college nondiscrimination policies concerning homosexuality. Incidents involved the student Christian Fellowship chapters at Tufts University (Massachusetts) and Middlebury College (Vermont). Conflict focuses on freedom of religion versus the institution's right to withhold funding from…

Describes how, at some colleges, clemency policies are discounting old failures when calculating students' grade point averages. (EV)

Four institutions' faculty tenure alternatives include a five-year probationary period leading to five-year renewable terms (Olivet College), a cap on tenured faculty (Union College), a contract system (Azusa Pacific University), and a return to traditional tenure from a term system (University of Texas of the Permian Basin). (MSE)

Discusses how the University of California's Board of Regents, under pressure from students and lawmakers, rescinded its policies against affirmative action, although a state ban remains in effect. (EV)

Discusses plans by various universities to provide or not provide the newly approved abortion pill RU486. Samples opinions from administrators, doctors, and pro-choice and pro-life advocates. (EV)

Discusses results of and university responses to a 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act that allows schools to inform parents any time a student under 21 violates drug or alcohol laws. Research findings indicate a drop in the recidivism rate from notification policies, but many universities continue to shy away from alerting parents. (EV)

Discusses how Columbia University is rethinking its judicial code after being embarrassed over criticism led by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a civil liberties group with a flair for public relations. (EV)

Discusses how colleges are creating offices to handle crimes, near-crimes, human errors, dramas, and assorted foibles on increasingly Internet-connected campuses. (EV)

Discusses how the American Association of University Professors wants colleges to give scholars who have newborns extra time before tenure reviews. There appears to be a reluctance of the part of faculty to take advantage of such policies, however, because of fear of being stigmatized. (EV)

The University of Miami has established 19 new rules aimed at orienting student-athletes to the campus, preparing them for the pressures of college athletics, and ending incidents of embarrassing athlete behavior. (MSE)