The question, "Who will bankroll poetry?", succinctly embodies what is now a widespread recognition that the humanities may have more to lose in the current budget wars than either the sciences or a number of technical fields. The only budget war that can unite individuals, rather than divide them, is one arguing that too much is being…

The recent strike of the Writers' Guild of America (WGA) raised an important issue for academic writers. Although their compensation and job security differ, WGA members and academics both are creators of knowledge and culture. Among academic authors, discussion about dissemination of and access to scholarly works and lamentation about…

Researchers can be reluctant to work with fellow academics outside their disciplines or to engage the public in their research. Some will even hesitate to work with departmental colleagues or their own students if they perceive a disciplinary gap. Many of today's pressing social concerns, however, demand interdisciplinary solutions and benefit…

Do liberal arts colleges act like research universities when they seek to appoint new faculty members? Evidence shows that research universities bid aggressively for talent, using discretionary salary policies to achieve a diverse professoriate, appoint research stars, and fill vacancies in fields where market forces require differential salaries.…

Data on female professionals relative to male professionals in select scientific and related fields are discussed. These data reveal that women have improved their position slightly, but are still used more in a part-time capacity, and that many fields employ relatively few women in a full-time capacity. (MLW)

In 1999, William Dembski became director of the newly established Michael Polanyi Center at Baylor University, thanks to the support of Baylor's president Robert Sloan. The center was, as Dembski observed, "the first intelligent design think tank at a research university." As such, it fulfilled a crucial objective of the "intelligent design"…

Echoing nineteenth-century clerics, hostility to science has become respectable in the university community, evidenced by the emergence of science studies as a discipline. Proponents of science studies support a stance toward scientific research that can lead to intellectual paralysis, and they may in fact understand very little about science.…

A new view of science that goes beyond conventional perceptions of science as either good or bad is proposed. The new perspective sees science as process rather than product, bringing together scientific skills and human insight. It is seen as important for the public to understand that expert disagreement is part of the scientific enterprise.…

While doctoral degree remains standard degree of preference when hiring for industrial laboratories, trends in actual job requirements suggest doctoral degree may provide training that is too narrow, and a master's degree may be a more appropriate qualification. In physical sciences, faculty should work with industry leaders to shape curricula…

Criticism of science reflects an exaggerated view of what science is capable of doing, even an expectation that science can "fix" the human condition, and misplaced fears about its hazards. Widespread scientific illiteracy in turn threatens the pursuit of science. (MSE)

The gap in understanding between scientists and the field of science studies, particularly critics of the current state of the sciences, is examined. It is argued that the tension has little or nothing to do with political correctness, but rather with the cost of science and the social contract on which its financial support rests. (MSE)

It is proposed that a feminist perspective on the scientific enterprise provides the basis for a psychosociology of scientific knowledge, an understanding of the ways in which psychodynamics and social norms interact in the construction and acceptance of claims to scientific knowledge. (MSE)

The legal tests that are applied to the issue of state mandates to provide creation instruction in public schools, and the implications of the mandates, are discussed. This issue is compared with other curriculum mandates and requirements to illustrate the difficulty of the problem. (MSE)

The high price of subscribing to scientific journals threatens scientific communications. A coalition of universities, libraries, and learned societies, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), is using electronic publishing to reverse that trend and provide affordable alternatives to costly print publications.…

Fiscal year 2001 marked an important milestone in policies to attract and retain women in science and engineering. That year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) initiated an awards program called ADVANCE at a funding level of $19 million. The program supports efforts by institutions and individuals to empower women to participate fully in…