Higher Education News

World & Nation
The distance-learning venture of New York University, NYUonline, is preparing to close, the university has announced.

"Economic conditions have shifted, and the benefits of having a separate for-profit enterprise have diminished," said a university spokesperson.

NYUonline, a for-profit company begun in October 1998 during the dot-com heyday, was supposed to develop online courses for businesses and other clients. The project joins Virtual Temple, Temple University's online company, which closed its doors last July.

The Council on Anthropology and Reproduction, a subsection of the American Anthropological Association, has called on its parent organization to encourage efforts to restructure academic work in such a way as to support "reproduction" in both its narrower and broader senses.

Notes the Council, "Women who wish to bear children biologically, and women and men who are actively involved in raising children and/or who shoulder other responsibilities (such as caring for aging parents), are systematically disadvantaged by the way that jobs and work are structured within academic institutions."

The Council's statement Reproduction in (and of) the Profession of Anthropology is available at the Council's Web site: www.geocities.com/anthrorepro/.

Faculty at Seoul National University have established South Korea's first union for college professors. Approximately 1,000 faculty nationwide have agreed to join the union, organizers said. The government warned that they could face serious legal consequences.

The Korean Education Ministry hasn't yet reacted to the union, but an official said the ministry would deal sternly with any illegal activities.

Union leaders say faculty should have job security and be given a voice in university reform. The union also argued that college professors should not be blocked from organizing because the Korean Constitution gives every worker the right to unionize.

Faculty & Staff
Brown University has appealed a labor board ruling that gave its graduate employees the right to vote on being represented by a union.

The National Labor Relations Board ruled in November that 510 Brown teaching assistants, proctors, and research assistants could vote on whether the Brown Graduate Employees Organization would represent them in collective bargaining. The grad students voted in December but the NLRB impounded the votes, pending the decision on Brown's appeal.

President Bush's appointees to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology come primarily from the information technology industry, a shift from previous presidential councils on which academic scientists were better represented.

Bush appointed seven academics to the 24 member council–six of whom are university presidents. The lone faculty member is plant biologist Charles J. Arntzen.

Professional News
A report from Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences finds 16 years of grade inflation at the elite institution. Since 1985-86, the report notes, the mean undergraduate grades have risen by 8.5 percent, with almost half of all undergraduate students at Harvard now receiving an A or A-.

Harvard's dean of undergraduate education, Susan G. Pedersen, is asking faculty to review the report and create grading guidelines by February 1, 2002.

Also at Harvard, the Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies recommends giving an immediate raise to the university's lowest-paid workers and adopting a policy that would promote collective bargaining to bring wages and benefits for contract workers up to the level of university-paid workers.The recommendations include establishing a strictly enforced code of conduct for contractors and a mechanism to ensure the employment committee's suggestions are carried out.

Educational Attainment of U.S. Population 25 Years and Older

Source: U.S. Census 2000 Supplemental Survey Summary Tables