With goals of fostering an intellectual atmosphere, building relationships, and increasing students' involvement on campus--and, ultimately, their rates of retention--universities around the country, including Elon, Michigan State, and Southern Methodist, are looking to residence life. House systems, residential neighborhoods, and living-learning…

The older teacher in today's college environment may find the generation gap between him and his younger colleagues wider than the one between him and his students. He may have trouble initiating shoptalk with the younger generation of careerists whose dossier is scrutinized annually by multiple pretenure review committees. When it comes to…

The idea of greater density on college campuses almost always meets with opposition. The Latin word "campus" translates into English as "field," suggesting open green space and unencumbered vistas. The concept of collegiate learning amid nature--rolling lawns, beautiful fall foliage--is ingrained into the American psyche. But a closer look…

In their efforts to manage the college environment, many higher-education institutions have deployed complex systems of student discipline--often in the form of legalistic codes of conduct. Paradoxically, says the author, major challenges involving students on campuses appear to be getting worse: high-risk alcohol/drug use persists; student…

Administrators at Union College, worried that the Greek system that dominated the campus was harming the college's students and its reputation, attempted to redefine campus social life in 2000. However, instead of dissolving fraternities, the Union decided to make the Greek system part of a social experiment, working with members of fraternities…

In this article, the author reflects on his feelings as a working-class transplant into academic culture and the middle class. He draws on his feelings of alienation from the people who surround him and his observations of the cultural subordination necessary to succeed in the middle class world to explain his desire to do more to help other…

Urban universities present an inherent conflict for administrators who oversee campus planning and development. Some see the need to withdraw and create an academic refuge. Others believe a campus must integrate physically with the city in order to stay relevant. The two approaches cannot be more dramatically different, and they have profound…

Explores how, for Muslim students on American campuses, life consists of frequent conflicts and occasional compromises with the secular culture. (EV)

Explores how, in the aftermath of the airplane hijackings and deaths at New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, academic freedom may be under threat. Provides examples of student or administrative action against professors offering different viewpoints. (EV)

This article discusses Antioch College, a once-prominent countercultural institution that will be closed in 2008 due to serious financial problems. Antioch has been hemorrhaging money for years. Its Board of Trustees has decided to shutter the college by July 2008 and lay off most of its 160 staff and faculty members. Although the administration…

A resurgence of racist incidents in the last few years has caused educators concern about hostility to Blacks on campuses. Some colleges have begun programs to sensitize students, faculty, and administrators to racial issues. (MSE)

Table details crime data 1991 and 1992 from 774 colleges and universities including reported incidents and number of arrests by type of crime. Shows robberies and assaults on college campuses are increasing. However, because of confusion about the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act, the federal law requiring colleges to report crime…

Author presents observations related to college students' informal manner of addressing authors when writing critically about literary works composed in the first person. Topics analyzed include students' relationship with the author depending on the literary work, and students' familiarity when addressing their elders and authority figures in the…

The 1990 Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act, designed to raise public awareness of college crime, is criticized for requiring institutions to gather large amounts of information that is used little by students or parents. Other criticisms focus on incompleteness of the data and potential for superficial and misleading comparisons. (MSE)

Fraternities are criticized for deteriorating student behavior, but college administrations are also under fire for not controlling or taking responsibility for the organizations. Conflict over the organizations' value continues. (MSE)