The Cornell Higher Education Research Institute is hosting its first higher education policy conference Oct. 15 and 16 on campus. All sessions are in the ILR Conference Center, rooms 105 and 120, and are open to the Cornell community.

During the conference, scholars from Cornell and elsewhere will discuss nine papers on a range of topics relevant to higher education on the cusp of the millennium. Among them are: the forces that influence alumni giving to colleges and universities; the shift toward more non-tenure track faculty on campuses across the country; student diversity in a post-affirmative action era; and the economic challenges to higher education today.

"Higher education has always been challenged by forces both external and internal, but never more so than today, it seems," said Ronald G. Ehrenberg, the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell, who founded and now heads the research institute. "It's imperative that educators gather from time to time to discuss the issues shaping the future of our institutions, clarify our values and look for solutions to our shared problems."

Ehrenberg, a former vice president at the university, believes that Cornell, with its range of resources and its special combination of public and private colleges, can be a catalyst for such discussions.

In addition to Cornell, institutions such as Williams College, the University of Virginia, the American Association of University Professors, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Rand Corporation are represented on the program. For more information on the conference and to register, call (607) 255-4424.