Contents for April 23-May 6, 1999

• Beginning July 31, Brown will have an additional telephone exchange -- 867 -- which will require all members of the Brown community to begin using a five-digit number when placing a call from one campus phone to another campus phone.

• This semester, there are about 40 visiting faculty members scattered among 23 academic sites on campus. Such visitors often spice up the academic environment with new ideas, one administrator says.

• Ride the rails with prospective members of the Class of 2003 as they board Brown's special "A Train" from Washington, D.C., to Providence for A Day on College Hill.

• In his new book, "The Age of the Bachelor," historian Howard Chudacoff examines the lifestyle during its heyday -- about a century ago.

• James Ron, a Watson Institute scholar, describes his recent experiences in Albania, where, on behalf of Human Rights Watch, he interviewed refugees fleeing Kosovo. His work was emotionally draining, he said, in part because of the guilt he felt when he was able to return to the village to dine.

• Campus Compact, one of the nation's oldest agencies for integrating public and community service into the college experience, now calls Brown its home. The organization's arrival brings with it a national initiative that targets civic disengagement among college and university students.

• The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America is celebrating its 10th year with a lecture series that concludes April 28 with a talk by the U.S. Department of Labor's chief economist

• THE LAST WORD: The Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy "shows the military to be out of step with a growing American consensus that believes differences ought to be tolerated when they have no bearing on performance ability," writes Ph.D. candidate Nathan Frank.