The University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, and North Dakota State College of Science offer complete undergraduate and graduate degree programs on an interactive video network, sometimes broadcasting at off-campus sites, making higher education more accessible and causing faculty to shift their perspectives on teaching. (MSE)

Backers of Western Governors University hope it will revolutionize the ways colleges compete for students, professors teach, and education is measured, and believe the virtual university can help contain the costs of educating growing numbers of students in the 16 participating states. However, the administration faces challenges in areas of…

Recent changes in National Collegiate Athletic Association rules concerning academics, recruiting, amateurism, membership and classification, championships, playing and practice seasons, general policies, and eligibility are summarized. (MSE)

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…

Eight institutions have created the Community College Distance Learning Network to pool resources and market courses offered on the Internet, video-based courses, and instruction that combines the two delivery systems. The network will have a home page on the World Wide Web, provide as many as 500 courses in fall 1998, and offer some degree…

Excerpts from the National Collegiate Athletic Association Presidents' Commission policy paper on intercollegiate athletics reform address such issues as the college experience of athletes, awarding of student financial aid, eligibility, the effects of competition, recruitment policies, program effects on institutions as well as athletes, and…

California's sometimes controversial efforts to keep Hispanic students in school and interested in college education include tutoring programs, financial aid, curriculum development, partnerships between school districts and higher education institutions, Spanish-language and Hispanic-oriented recruitment and encouragement efforts, and transfer of…

Recognizing that today's graduate student is tomorrow's professor, some institutions have begun working to convince minority-group members that faculty careers will be prestigious, rewarding, and available. Their efforts center on increased financial support in the form of graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. (MLW)

Almost three years after the California State University System settled a sex-discrimination lawsuit by acceding to the strictest gender-equity standards in college sports, only 2 of the 19 institutions sponsoring athletic programs have met the agreement's terms. Some feel the agreement, based on proportionality of participation and funding for…

Five of the world's largest libraries have joined Google in a herculean effort to digitize millions of books and make every sentence searchable. The project involves libraries at Harvard and Stanford Universities, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Oxford, in England, as well as the New York Public Library. It could…

Although the Chelsea project, in which Boston University has taken control of the Chelsea School System (Massachusetts), has been hampered by political and financial problems, the university is pressing ahead with educational experiments to improve teaching, expand educational opportunities, reduce dropout rates, and increase community…

College and university athletic programs currently under sanction by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for rule violations are listed, with the violations and penalties specified. (MSE)

Five challenges that will preoccupy America in the coming years and that can be overcome with the partnership of the federal government and higher education are identified: preserving peace in an interdependent world, economic revitalization, expanding educational opportunity, meeting essential human needs, and restoring respect for values and…

Stanford University dismissed Steven Mosher from its graduate program in anthropology for "illegal and seriously unethical conduct" in the field (China). Political and ethical factors are discussed. (MLW)