It is easy to see why a college might want a big board. It is simpler to add trustees than to remove members who are no longer pulling their weight, and growth can be justified as an effort to broaden the diversity of opinions in a group. It is also true that there may be no better way to cultivate donors than to give them active policy-making…

College faculties often use votes of "no confidence" to try to push out the leaders of their institutions. Many do so, however, without giving much thought to what such a vote actually means, whether they are using it appropriately, or how it will affect their campus--and their own future. Mae Kuykendall, a professor of law at Michigan State…

Stories of transient students missing deadlines or being misled about their voting rights are nothing new. But this year, the role younger voters played in Barack Obama's win in Iowa's Democratic presidential primary seems to have motivated a wave of college students in other states. Some of those students--and the campaigns courting them--are out…

Pennsylvania is considered one of the nation's key swing states. But over in Penn State's student union, there wasn't much excitement about the forthcoming election--even though it is the first presidential vote that most undergraduates will cast. A visit last week by "The Chronicle" to Penn State and two other campuses in the central…

In his presidential acceptance speech last week, Barack Obama gave a nod to his youngest and most loyal supporters, who, he said, had "rejected the myth of their generation's apathy." Indeed, voters ages 18 to 29 turned out more than they had since 1972, the first presidential election after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. They supported…

Supporters of affirmative action may have finally found a way to defeat state ballot measures that would ban such programs: Latch onto an inspirational presidential candidate with piles of cash and an unprecedented voter-turnout machine. Those activists won a narrow victory in Colorado this month, when 50.7 percent of voters made the state the…

Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States; they are taking resources and jobs from Americans; they are "browning" their racial makeup--among other scenarios of doom that have accompanied the immigration debate. But with the 2008 presidential campaign season, Latinos have suddenly become the belles of the ball.…

This article reports that a state ballot measure to ban affirmative-action programs based on race, gender, and national origin at public colleges and other state agencies was defeated. Colorado voters narrowly rejected such a referendum last week by a razor-thin margin that took two days to become official. Voters in Nebraska, however, took the…

Obamamania has swept across college campuses. Students, it seems, are out campaigning, registering people to vote, singing the Democrat's praises far and wide. This article reports that a new poll of college students in four battleground states--Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania--conducted by CBS News, UWIRE, and "The…

In his book titled "Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age," Larry M. Bartels wrote that "the familiar image of a party system transformed by Republican gains among working-class cultural conservatives turns out to be largely mythical." According to Bartels, who is director of Princeton's Center for the Study of Democratic…

On Election Day in 2006, some students at the University of Texas at Austin were prodded by startlingly personal calls from Democratic Party supporters. As political campaigns look to corral young voters, those calls could be a harbinger of things to come in 2008: campaigns going after students through contact information that public colleges are…

This article reports a unique partnership between Kennesaw State University and the Georgia state government involving the participation of computer experts in the deployment or electronic voting machines. The effort has received attention in Washington as scientists and government officials search for ways to reform election procedures across the…

Students at many public universities often have a substantial say in what they will pay for the construction of non-academic facilities usually through referenda in which they vote to enact fees to cover the debt service on the building. However, some students are reluctant to vote in any new fee, given that tuition regularly increases at…

Discusses a national survey suggesting that college students could be a key demographic force in the 2004 elections. (EV)

Proposals to make major changes in the membership structure of the National Collegiate Athletic Association have been divisive. Advocates for women's sports, particularly frustrated by scholarship and coaching staff cuts, want to make federal antidiscrimination compliance a top issue. Delegates used a new electronic voting system. (MSE)