For one faculty member at New York University's online, for-profit subsidiary, the job involves sales as well as instruction. Now that we have some experience publishing electronically, it's time to determine whether it is changing research, teaching, and learning, writes Kate Wittenberg, director of the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia University. Scholars in 39 developing countries are benefiting from a project, financed by George Soros, to subsidize libraries' access to commercial databases. Universitas 21, a network of 18 universities in 10 countries, will develop online-education materials with a division of the Thomson Corporation. Regents College, known for online learning, hopes a name change will emphasize its independence.
Critics are angry over the government's aid to a for-profit online institution.
Woody Plants of North America, a new CD-ROM, teaches users to identify 470 kinds of trees. A consortium of regional accreditors granted candidate status to Western Governors University. RU-486 Few colleges plan to offer the new abortion drug, but many are facing demands that they supply it. While staging The Little Prince with puppets, students at Gonzaga University learned lessons in teamwork and creativity. The creators of an Internet cartoon called Zombie College are dying to turn it into a television series.