Aspects Of Campus Life Research Articles

Campus wide information system development at three UK universities

Campus wide information systems (CWIS) are the newest development in the electronic campus, providing information on many aspects of campus life. This article gives a brief overview of CWIS development in the United Kingdom as at summer 1993. As yet there is no definitive CWIS, so a range of third generation systems were looked at in detail at the Universities of Birmingham, Bradford and Stirling. Within each, attention is given to differences in organisational policy, functionality, software and information provision. An appraisal of the specific case studies was undertaken both onsite and remotely via a national gateway. A comparison of the systems draws out features that should be available on an ideal CWIS. Future developments, including the advent of standards such as X.500 and Z39.50 and the adoption of common software, will lead to greater interaction between institutions. All of this coupled with the development of hypermedia and multimedia will ensure CWISs will become a powerful tool in the provision of information.

Rent-seeking in the academy: The political economy of specialty programs

S ince the 1960s, hundreds of ethnic (black/Hispanic/native American) and gender (women's) studies programs have been established in American universities. Emerging from the civil rights and women's movements, these specialty programs were established to meet the needs of various minority groups that had been neglected by the mainstream curriculum--a curriculum, it is claimed, designed by and for white males. At a time when civil rights activists were demanding racial integration of white institutions and increased female and minority participation in all aspects of campus life, the establishment of specialty programs was a contradictory process of selfsegregation, leading to the creation of academic ghettos. A large volume of literature questions the merit of and the need for these specialty programs. 1 It is commonly assumed that the intended goal of specialty programs is to serve the of disadvantaged minorities and women, and this is used to justify larger budgets for such programs. In this essay, I argue that specialty programs serve the economic interests of their faculty. Through self-segregation, and by creating artificial barriers to employment in these areas, specialty programs are de facto unions, enhancing the incomes of their members. To establish these claims, the economic conception of rents is applied in an analysis of salary data drawn from a sample of twenty American universities. This evidence indicates that specialty programs generate significant economic rents. Any benefits specialty programs yield to minorities and women could be considered byproducts of the faculty seeking and receiving rents. (It is important to note that even those most critical of specialty programs are not basically opposed to courses on minorities and women. Instead, they object to the creation of separate departments with different standards that offer