Five academics from around the world plan to open a new kind of online university early next year, built upon professor star power and students learning from one another through online social tools. The teachers will be volunteers, the courses will cost next to nothing, and no official credit will be given. The organizers call it P2P University…

The 22-year-old Whitaker Foundation, the largest private supporter of biomedical engineering, will close in 2006 to avoid becoming a bureaucracy in search of a reason for being. The foundation, with assets of about $442 million, will increase payouts until 1999, then decrease them as it spends its way out of existence. About 95% of grants go to…

The text of the American Council on Education's draft of proposed guidelines for drug testing of college athletes is provided. The purpose of programs for testing intercollegiate athletes for use of drugs, it is suggested, should be to prevent use of performance-enhancing drugs that undermine the integrity of athletic competition. (MLW) PUBTYPE-055

Describes how institutions in Britain are working together to create a national e-University, a government-sponsored effort to bring together an assortment of distance-learning programs and courses to be sold to students all over the world. However, some officials are skeptical of its need or its prospects for success. (EV)

Parent orientations, planned to better the parents' understanding of the freshman-year experience by providing a comprehensive view of campus life, are described. The orientations are aimed at assuring parents that their children have chosen their college wisely. (MLW)

Bergen Community College, Middlesex County College, and Union County College are setting up (1) counseling programs to help welfare recipients determine their job interests and skills, (2) job-training courses, and (3) day-care centers for participants children. (MLW)