This article describes the work-life benefits Gettysburg College offers its employees. 400 of Gettysburg's 725 full-time employees participate in the college's wellness program. About half of them stick with it long enough to earn discounts of up to $500 a year on their health-insurance premiums. The wellness program--which includes free on-campus…

The Jones Theatre at Washington State University is getting a $500,000 face-lift this summer. A construction crew has already ripped out its 500 orange and blue seats and is replacing them with new ones covered in a wine-colored fabric. The theater's walls are being painted a light beige, and a new set of black velour curtains will grace the…

In this article, the author examines the issue of student debt. Despite tales of gargantuan student debt burdens for some college graduates, studies show that most students borrow sensibly, pay it back, and are better off for having gone to college. But for a vocal minority of borrowers, problems with student-loan debt are very real. About 8…

For decades, college coaches in many sports have been recruiting internationally to stock their teams with the best players they can find. American universities in the NCAA's Division I gain competitive advantages with gifted young athletes from overseas, and the proportion of foreign players in many Division I sports has doubled since the…

Describes a summer program, Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE), that provides crucial experience to women who hope to go on to earn Ph.D.s in mathematics. (EV)

Pennsylvania's sophisticated system for student loan fraud and abuse detection is described, including the factors felt to contribute to its success and suggestions for improving other state agency fraud units. (MSE)

This article reports that a Virginia Tech professor whose wife was among 32 people killed by a student gunman last year will become director of the university's new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. Jerzy Nowak will give up his job as chairman of Tech's horticulture department to take the new post on July 1. His wife, Jocelyne…

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University conferred three doctorates in engineering on African Americans this year, who along with two more earning degrees this summer will substantially increase the pool of African American engineering Ph.D's. The university's new program is hailed by some, but criticized by others as not…

This article reports on the findings of the state panel on the Virginia Tech massacre. A state panel that investigated last spring's massacre at Virginia Tech has issued a harshly worded report that says the university erred in the way it handled a mentally disabled student who became a killer and in how it dealt with the immediate aftermath of…

Under the College Housing Loan Program, the Education Department lends money to colleges to build and refurbish dormitories and other student facilities. Problems plaguing the loan program are discussed. Both colleges and the federal government have broken most of the rules governing the program. (MLW)

Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) involves students in faculty research projects to enrich the undergraduate experience. The summer program offers stipends to students to work with faculty or graduate students on specific projects. Students are exposed to the processes of research and better able to choose or reject a research career. (MSE)

HEMAR Education Corporation, a finance corporation, has announced a tuition prepayment program and invited colleges to participate. The program allows parents to pay postsecondary tuition years in advance at deeply discounted rates, with guarantees that the amount paid would cover college attendance costs. Unlike existing programs, college choice…

This article talks about a special program implemented at Towson University, wherein students are admitted into college even if they don't qualify under the regular admissions. The Towson program is an experiment, and Deborah J. Leather, the associate provost who runs it, acknowledges that it is too soon to tell whether the effort has been worth…

At Texas A&M University and the University of South Florida recent changes have limited some benefits of tenure. While these changes do not yet reflect a trend, some experts note that universities should deal with troublesome faculty members individually rather than by establishing rules eroding tenure for all. (SLD)

Describes a new book that argues that faculties lack diversity in part because affirmative action has led many minority students to enroll at colleges where they do not do well enough to go on to Ph.Ds. (EV)