Chronicle of Higher Education Audio: Interviews

Duke University's long-time financial aid director discusses the current state of his profession- and its future.

Vance H. Fried, a professor at Oklahoma State University, has produced -- on paper, at least -- a model institution that could provide students a well-rounded education for just $7,376 a year.

A new book, "Blown to Bits," offers engineer's-eye views on copyright infringement, digital censorship, and "why we lost our privacy, or gave it away." Two of the book's authors -- Hal Abelson, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harry Lewis, a professor of computer science at Harvard University -- weigh in on what they call "the digital explosion."

What's it like to have an earthquake interrupt your lecture about...earthquakes? David D. Oglesby, an assistant professor of seismology at the University of California at Riverside, describes his earthshaking classroom experiences last week.

Aisha Labi, The Chronicle's correspondent in Europe, discusses her recent trip to Iran to report on the Iranian government's efforts to suppress activism on university campuses.

After covering distance education for more than a decade, The Chronicle's Goldie Blumenstyk finally took the plunge and enrolled in an online course through the University of Phoenix. She shares tales from the cyber-classroom with Paul Fain, a Chronicle reporter.

The University of North Texas has about 35,000 students, but many of them didn't start their academic careers there. Gretchen Bataille, president of North Texas, talks about how the institution manages the flow of transfer students.

Ohio State University's president, E. Gordon Gee, is one of the nation's most veteran university chiefs. He describes how to weather challenges as a president, including how to deal with hostility from Capitol Hill.

Carl C. Dalstrom, president and chief executive of USA Funds, the nation's largest guarantee agency, describes why companies involved in federally subsidized student lending need even more government assistance before they can continue making loans for this coming academic year.

David W. Leebron, president of Rice University, describes why his institution is focusing on "the foreign experience" and why he'll appear next month at a U.S. Department of State summit about globalization.

Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University, argues in a new book that people's growing intolerance for viruses, spam, and other computer maladies will end up crippling technological advancement.

The Very Rev. David M. O'Connell, president of the Catholic University of America, describes how his institution is getting ready to welcome Pope Benedict XVI, who has planned a visit this month.

Brian Whitworth, a researcher at the Centre for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, talks about his recent research paper that poses the question: What if the physical world we live in is a virtual-reality construct inside a giant computer?

Mark A. Emmert, president of the University of Washington, describes how his institution balances research priorities with the experience it offers undergraduates.

Marissa Mayer, vice president for search products and user experience at Google, talks about the company's efforts to get colleges to adopt its e-mail service and responds to critics of the company's partnership with college libraries.