Officials from higher education, government, and industry are examining ways to create and maintain a nationwide computerized information network. Issues include the choice of technology, locus of responsibility, financial support, copyrights, and making the system useful for the majority of individuals. (MSE)

The Council for Aid to Education, citing 1989 data compiled by the Internal Revenue Service, reported that the nation's companies had given $6.16-billion to charitable causes in 1987 of which $2.6-billion went to education. Companies are continuing to direct an increasing share (10.5 percent up from 6 percent in 1987) of money to precollegiate…

Several scientific organizations are ready to distribute refereed science periodicals aimed at wide audiences over computer networks. If the experiments succeed, they may stimulate a major shift in the nature of scholarly communication. Some are concerned about the quality of the journals, their reputation, apparent transience of computerized…

Interviews with computer-company officials and a survey show that: despite higher education discounts, computer companies make money; colleges offer computer companies intellectual capital; students take hardware and software preferences with them into jobs; higher education influences computers built and sold; and higher education is a…

Tables showing financial support of higher education 1983-84 are presented. Purposes of support, sources of support, forms of giving, support through the annual fund, gifts of property, and corporations' matching gifts for both public and private institutions are covered. (MLW)

Allen Lee Sessoms, president of Queens College (New York) has turned to alumni and New York corporations as untapped sources of financial support for the institution. Critics feel he has given up on state funding too soon; supporters call him a visionary. Sessoms identifies with the institution's "bootstraps" tradition, but does not find…

Private contributions to colleges and universities appear to have rebounded from changes in the tax laws and the crash on Wall Street. Both private and public institutions recorded healthy increases in total support, but the share of contributions going to public universities expanded more rapidly than that going to private institutions. (MLW)

Expenditures (in dollars) for scientific and engineering research and development (R&D) by doctorate-granting universities are listed for each state. Percentages of those expenditures from federal, state, industry, institutional, and other funds are also given; and one-year increases in total R&D spending are noted for each state. (MSE)

In an attempt to restore confidence in a governance structure tarnished by an ongoing football scandal, Southern Methodist University has abolished its board of governors dominated by Dallas businessmen and will consider a permanent and substantial restructuring plan. (MSE)

The hometown of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has created the Blacksburg Electronic Village, a community-based computer network linking businesses, schools, and individual community members. The university, telephone company, and town established the system collaboratively in 1992, and additional grants have come to the…

Rising library costs and the expansion of computer networks have led administrators at major research universities to consider fundamental changes in scholarly publishing. Major issues include sharing of costly foreign materials, making scientific and technical material more accessible, and treatment of intellectual property in the electronic…

An experiment involving 10 university libraries and their patrons suggests that libraries may eventually buy access only to the specific journal articles that scholars want to read, rather than subscribe to the journals' complete contents. Three subscription types are being tested. So far, institutions are buying the least traditional form: access…

Data on voluntary giving to private and public higher education institutions include information on the purposes of the support (operations, capital, endowment, and loan funds), sources (alumni, parents, other individuals, foundations, industry, and religious and other organizations), forms of giving, annual fund support, property gifts, and…

The College of Idaho's response to seriously declining enrollment, dwindling endowment, low faculty morale, and threat of loss of accreditation in the mid-1980s was a revival led by a former businessman and trustee turned college president. Faculty support for the new administrator has been high. (MSE)

A group of entrepreneurs is promoting an ambitious commercial venture to sell electronic books to university libraries. The library can buy an electronic copy of the book for the print version's price; provide users access through special formatting and software, allowing users to highlight and annotate but not print; and restrict access to one…