Advocate Online

They're Talking On Campus.
. . . About A new national survey that examines what colleges and universities contribute to student learning. The National Survey of Student Engagement asked 63,000 first-year and senior students how they participate in classroom and campus activities that research studies show are important to learning.

Among the findings: 79 percent of students say their institution expects them to study a significant amount. But less than 15 percent say they study two hours outside class for every hour in class.

More than half—55 percent—spend only one hour or less for every class hour. More information on the survey, cosponsored by the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, is available at www.indiana.edu/~nsse/.

. . . About A U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that an effort to increase diversity can be a justification for public colleges to use race as a factor in admissions decisions.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel in the Ninth Circuit, upholding the principles of a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, is seen as a victory for advocates of affirmative action in college admissions.

The Appeals Court ruling came on a 1997 suit by three white applicants who were rejected by the University of Washington law school. The three charged that the law school's admissions standards violated their constitutional rights to equal protection.