Tuesday, January 18, 2000
Welcome to Virtual University
Stanford University researcher William F. Massey has helped develop a soon-to-be-released computer game called Virtual U, a commercial product which gives players the opportunity to manage a university. The game is modeled after other infrastructure-building and management simulation programs, such as the popular SimCity.
Virtual U provides a sophisticated financial and managerial model of how a university operates. Players must deal with real-life university dynamics between athletics and academics, faculty and staff, students and administration, and budgets which are affected by allocations, grants and private gifts. The game will even allow a player to choose a fictional mascot.
Virtual U is expected to be released in March and many higher education officials have already expressed a desire to use the game as a teaching and training tool for graduate students and senior-level administrators. A Web site (www.virtual-u.org) with a game demo is expected to be active by Feb. 1.

Foreign students flock to U.S.
The number of foreign students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities increased by 2 percent last year, according to a recent report from the Institute of International Education. Last year’s increase followed a 5 percent increase during the previous year; total student enrollment reached a record 490,933 in 1999. More than half of all foreign students in the United States--56 percent last year--came from Asia.

Mentors effective in law schools
At the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools this month, one session focused on figures released last fall by the association showing that female and minority professors are less likely to win tenure than their white male colleagues. Panelists urged law schools to make sure that female and minority faculty have mentors and other support.
For faculty members in 1990 and 1991, only 57.1 percent of minority law professors won tenure, compared to 80.6 percent of white male law professors. Among faculty hired in those two years, 72.4 percent of men and 61.3 percent of women received tenure.

Wealthy white males claim most learning disabilities on SAT
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, based on data supplied by the College Board, the number of students who receive extra time to complete the SAT because of a claimed learning disability has soared in recent years, and most of the growth has occurred among white male students whose parents are wealthy.
Last year, about 47,000 students received extra time. For accommodated students, the figures were 84 percent white, 61 percent male, and 27 percent from families with incomes of $100,000 or more; comparable figures for those who received no special treatment were 68 percent white, 45 percent male and 13 percent from wealthy families.
--Matthew Winston
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