Quick Study

By Desa Philadelphia

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SOMEONE TO CALL "SIR"

Fewer than 1% of elementary-school teachers are black men. And principals want more of them as role models for inner-city schoolchildren. So schools of education are ratcheting up their efforts to fill the need. At three historically black colleges in South Carolina--Claflin, Benedict and Morris--male freshmen who commit to teaching for four years in the state receive full scholarships. The model was developed by researchers at Clemson University and will be expanded to other historically black schools.

COLLEGE PRINCETON RAISES THE ANTE ON AID

In the competition to attract the nation's best students, Ivy League universities are usually quick to match one another's recruiting inducements. But when Princeton recently announced it would replace loans with outright grants in the financial-aid packages it offers to undergraduates, its competitors fell silent. Why? Princeton's new aid plan will cost the university at least an extra $5 million a year. Princeton can afford that cost, thanks to investment returns on its $8 billion endowment. And its move is sure to spur more criticism of other Ivys that have even larger endowments (Harvard: $19 billion; Yale: $10 billion) but have been reluctant to use them for more student aid.

GRADUATE SCHOOL STUDENTS BID FOR CLASSES

Remember when getting into the one class you really needed was a nightmare? Well, Penn State now asks, "What's it worth to ya?" Each second-year student at the Smeal College of Business Administration is given 500 tokens (think Monopoly money) to bid on the classes he wants. It's an online process, and students can bid high for a seat in a must-have class--or for one they think they could barter later. Unpopular professors may feel as if they are on The Gong Show.

COLLEGE THE JOY OF TEACHING

A few weeks ago Lehigh University professor Peter Beidler received a surprising e-mail from a teacher at Nanjing University in China. She told Beidler that "Why I Teach," an essay he wrote in 1985, is mandatory reading for 2 million students each year at 1,900 colleges in China. Beidler thinks the Chinese like the piece because it extols the benefits of public service, but he is realistic about what it means to be a best-selling author there. "The Chinese," he says, "aren't big on copyrights."