Learning Resources

Abstract: This article examines the academic planning implications of “The Senior Citizens’ Freedom to Work Act of 2000.” The act sharply reduces Social Security retirement benefit penalties previously imposed on 65- to 69-year-old professionals who earned more than nominal incomes after enrolling in the program, potentially delaying their retirement decisions. Further, the average salary level of senior professors in U.S. colleges and universities places them among those who will most heavily benefit from the act, which might change the age composition of academic faculties significantly over time. This article closes with a discussion of the act’s potential impact on faculty turnover rates, academic staffing patterns, and the age distribution of academic faculties.

Abstract: The quality of campus life in large universities has declined over the years as faculty have given up responsibility for student life outside the classroom and institutions have become ever more bureaucratized. To solve this problem, universities should establish systems of small, decentralized academic communities modeled ultimately on the residential colleges of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In the United States, Harvard and Yale Universities first adopted this residential college model in the 1930s, and it is now spreading to many institutions, public and private, large and small.

Abstract: Urban schools segment students into direct from high school (DHS) or "traditional" and adult or "nontraditional," based on presumed scheduling and program preferences and media access. Grouping enrollment and survey data from one institution by permanent residence, class schedules, and campus participation produced a modified picture: local DHS students are more like adults than out-of-town DHS students. "Campus-centered" and "community-centered" are proposed to replace traditional and nontraditional concepts. Implications of this reconceptualization are developed.

Abstract: This article describes a joint project that allowed San Jose State University and the city of San Jose, California, to work together to meet their shared challenges and work within the parameters of their differences in constructing a joint library. It is the first such partnership in the United States that is both fully integrated and jointly funded. The article discusses the special challenges of such as project as well as the lessons learned.

Abstract: A study identified operational computer lab models being used at higher education institutions to accommodate the computer needs of students with disabilities and to develop an instrument to assist administrators as they evaluate their programs to implement such models. Study findings presented the case that institutions have to address the issue of access to computer technology by all students. These findings are supported by studies that showed legislative initiatives that mandate disability accommodations, increasing numbers of students with disabilities enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities, increasing numbers of computers on campuses, and the requirement for use of computers by college students.