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The field of information technology---often defined as both computing
and telecommunications---is now the nation's largest industry.
 A new study sponsored by
the American Electronics Association and NASDAQ has found that sales by the
computing and telecommunications industries have grown by 57 percent during the
1990s, to $866 billion.
The high-technology sector,
the study reports, generated 6.2 percent of the nation's output of goods and
services in 1996 and employed nearly 4.3 million people. Workers in the field
earn wages 73 percent higher than the average wage in the overall private
sector.
A federal judge in Kentucky has ruled for the first time that the
college press is subject to the same restrictions that were placed on
high-school publications by the U.S. Supreme Court nearly a decade ago.
In that decision, Hazelwood
School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court said that the content of
news-papers at public high schools could be censored by a school's
administration.
The
original Court decision specifically excluded public colleges and universities.
In this case, two students
argued that Kentucky State University had violated their First Amendment rights
by withholding distribution of the student yearbook and by attempting to control
the content of the student newspaper.
More than 100,000 university students rallied in major cities across
Germany in January.
The demonstrators demanded
more money for the nation's higher education system, in Germany's largest
student demonstrations for at least 20 years. Students criticized government
plans to spend up to 23 billion marks ($13 billion) to buy 180 combat jets,
while ignoring the needs of universities.
Jazz musicians at the New School of Social Research Mannes Jazz and
Contemporary Music Program in New York City have voted to be represented by the
musicians union.
The union's effort at The
New School is part of its "Justice for Jazz Artists" campaign---a
citywide push to improve the working conditions of jazz artists wherever they
work in schools, at festivals, and in nightclubs. These part-time instructors
had received no benefits and few salary increases, leaders noted.
The University of Alaska system's part-time instructors, some of whom
say they have not had a pay raise since 1980, have voted to unionize.
The adjunct faculty voted
425 to 195 to be represented by the United Academic Adjuncts, an affiliate of
the Alaska Public Employees Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
The University of California at Berkeley has rededicated the steps of
Sproul Hall as Mario Savio Steps.
The steps leading
to Sproul Hall were the site of Mario Savio s famous speech during the Free
Speech Movement in the 1960s.
Savio's widow has
requested that the brass commemorative plaque on the steps include his favorite
quote from Diogenes, "The most beautiful thing in the world is the freedom
of speech."
The unemployment rate for new doctoral recipients in mathematical
sciences declined from 10.1 percent in 1995-96 to 6.8 percent in 1996-97, the
lowest such figure sinces1990.
The survey, conducted by the
math discipline organizations, found that math full professors at top-ranked
public institutions earned on average $80,370---assistant professors, $47,451.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, Postsecondary Education Quick Information
System, Survey on Distance Education Cources Offered by Higher Education
Institutions, 1995 |
