They're Talking On Campus.

. . .About a recommendation from the Business-Higher Education Forum that college presidents support and encourage collaborations between corporations and university researchers.

In 1999, corporations sponsored nearly 10 percent of all research conducted at U.S. colleges and universities.

The Forum was established by the American Council on Education and the National Alliance of Business to study ethical and logistical issues involving such collaborations.

Critics called their report a "whitewash," claiming it provides no recommendations on how to monitor such partnerships and failed to urge professors and universities to disclose their own business affiliations.

More information on the report is available at: www.acenet.edu.

. . .About the formation of a new international human rights group that will report on breaches of academic freedom and human rights, as well as repression against scholars in nations around the world.

"Universities and colleges are often now in the front line in human rights movements," notes John Akker, the organization's executive director, "and they are the first to suffer repression."

The Network for Education and Academic Rights will fall under the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The group will gather information from a variety of human rights and professional organizations, and post its findings at its Web site: www.nearinternational.org.