Great Colleges Reap the Benefits of Great Workplace Culture

The results of The Chronicle's new survey point to the importance of creating an atmosphere where employees feel they can succeed.

Great Colleges to Work For 2011: See Who Made the 2011 List

The Chronicle's fourth annual survey asked faculty and staff to assess their employers as workplaces. Use our tool to find out which colleges excel in which areas.

Communication and Shared Purpose Help Inspire Confidence in Campus Leaders

Lindenwood University still doesn't offer tenure, but the president has established a system of shared governance that leaves professors feeling secure.

Humanity and Flexibility Add Up to Strong Work-Life Balance

Policies like paid parental leave are most effective, college personnel agree, when workers are confident they can use them when it matters most.

Three Colleges Earn an A+ in Career Development

Professional-learning communities and career support earn high marks for Eastern Kentucky U., Miami Dade, and U. of the Incarnate Word.

Junior Professors Juggle Teaching, Research, and Advice

Some colleges are taking a fluid approach to orientation efforts for new faculty members.

Associate Professors: Academe's Sandwich Generation

Several colleges offer advice sessions for scholars caught between the newcomers working toward tenure and the full professors with big grants.

Senior Professors: Not When to Retire, but How

It's a sensitive subject. But an awareness of the issues and openness about feelings can make all the difference.

For These Administrators, 1,000-Mile Workplaces

Meet two officials who are taking a 21st-century approach to sharing knowledge and resources across institutions spread far and wide.

Forum: The Future of Faculty Unions

Will collective bargaining survive in its current form? Do we want it to? See what six commentators had to say.

Bridging the Generational Tech Gap

The disparity in technical know-how provides an opportunity for new professors to be mentors to their elders.

Professor Mom: Finding Work-Family Balance Despite the Odds

Young women still need advice about how to juggle publishing deadlines and bedtime stories.

Big Pharma Finds a Home on Campus

As companies scale back spending, academic leaders hope to capitalize on new drug-discovery efforts.

As Accreditors in Particular Disciplines Multiply, So Do Questions About Their Role

Educators disagree about what responsibilities such auditors have to the public.

In a Land of Second Chances, Recruiting One Student at a Time

Homeless shelters and rehab clinics are prime recruitment spots for Antioch University's special liberal-arts program.

With Federal Support Uncertain, University Researchers Look to Industry

Wichita State University has seen its research program take off with the help of airplane manufacturers. But other universities haven't found it so simple.

A High-Tech Library Keeps Books at Faculty Fingertips—with Robot Help

The shelves are bursting, but a robotic-retrieval system keeps bound volumes from being exiled from the University of Chicago's new library.

Recession Reshaped College Enrollment, but the Sky Didn't Fall

Head counts surged at community colleges and held steady at four-year institutions, says the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center in a new report.

Pro-Nuclear Professors Are Accused of Singing Industry's Tune in Japan

What's more, academics and others have sharply criticized the way nuclear skeptics from the nation's universities were shut out of public discussion.

5 Minutes With a Biologist Who Studies the Impact of Radiation, as He Returns From Japan

Tim Mousseau, a University of South Carolina biologist who has spent decades examining wildlife around Chernobyl, recently collected data in Japan's disaster zone.

An Honored Biologist Works Into the Night for a Threatened Species

For Thomas Kunz, who received Boston University's highest faculty honor, there's no greater thrill than the swoosh of a million bats emerging from a cave.

When Young Turks Grow Up to Be College Presidents

Campus leaders who were activists in their youth have come to embody the very establishment forces they railed against decades before.

What's Your Major? Probably Not One of These

A glance at a handful of narrow academic specialities.

Selected New Books on Higher Education

Rogue Downloader's Arrest Could Mark Crossroads for Open-Access Movement

To charge, or not to charge: That is the question Aaron Swartz, accused of abusing MIT's computer network, has brought to the forefront of debate in scholarly publishing.

Casual References to Violence Bring Serious Consequences for College Instructors

Faculty members need to watch every word in the classroom.

Taiwan Opens Doors to Students From Mainland China

This fall more than 2,000 Chinese students will enroll in degree programs in Taiwan for the first time in 60 years.

Va. Community Colleges Dive Headfirst Into Remedial-Math Redesign

Other colleges struggling with developmental courses watch to see how well the new module-based curriculum will work.

Middlebury College Draws Young Donors With Microphilanthropy

The opportunity to support their friends' projects with small amounts brings recent graduates into the giving circle.

Have Lectures, Will Travel

A few gregarious academics have discovered an instructional way to see the world from the deck of a luxury liner.

Colleges Fight Google Ads That Reroute Prospective Students

Despite rules and ethical guidelines, search ads tout one college but direct students to another.

A Historian Meets Canada's Farmers on Their Own Soil

A scholar drives a tractor across the country to collect stories from people who work the land.

Off the Field, Big Ten's Faculty Work to Prevent Concussions

A consortium of academics plans an ambitious online repository for data and research on traumatic brain injuries.

Field Report: Music Archaeology, Digging the Hits of Yesteryear

Ancient instruments find their voice.

Music Archaeology: Some Resources

Why We Can't Teach Students to Love Reading

The idea that many teachers hold today, that one of the purposes of education is to do just that, is largely alien to the history of education.

Health Now: A Provocation

We go at body maintenance as if it could produce the same sense of achievement and consequence as a perfect piece of art.

Why Academic English Is Not a Club I Want to Join

It's not that I don't respect anyone. It's just that very few of those I do respect are English professors.

Why We Should Teach National History in a Global Age

Students won't connect with global concerns unless they have an emotional and intellectual investment in their nation first.

The Problem With In-State Tuition

Colleges need more money, and the reasons to charge less to in-state residents are no longer valid.

How to Save the Traditional University, From the Inside Out

Not every university can be Harvard, and most should stop trying, say Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring.

What Bans on Same-Sex Marriage Can Mean for Public Universities' Benefits

Colleges are handicapped when their states prevent them from offering health-care coverage to same-sex couples.

'Unintended Consequences' of Rule for Online Courses

"We may find ourselves able to provide master's-level education in bioethics to researchers in former Soviet Union states, but be prevented from doing so here in the United...

Socrates Had No Tenure, So Why Should You?

"According to Ms. Riley, eliminating tenure would require faculty salaries to go up 'significantly' and also 'slightly.' Logic 0, Riley 1."

Where Are All the Islamic Terrorists?

The three-dozen deaths caused by Islamic terrorism in the U.S. since September 11, 2001, are a small fraction of the violence the country experiences every year.

'Why Should We Care?'—What to Do About Declining Student Empathy

American college students have been scoring lower and lower on standardized empathy tests. How can instructors help?

A Size That Fits All for the Science-and-Technology Pipeline

To bring supply and demand into better balance, a number of demand-side policies should receive support from all quarters.

It's a Dissertation, Not a Book

Instead of guidance, young scholars receive an imperative: Write a book or else.

On Mistakenly Shredding a Prized Collection

The digital and physical transformation of academic libraries will better serve students in the end but not without growing pains.

What We Learned This Past Year

Two professors and the chair who hired them reflect on the challenges of changing jobs midway along the tenure track.

'Big Tent Digital Humanities,' a View From the Edge, Part 1

New technologies, alliances, and career paths redefine the future of higher education in the humanities, but not everywhere.