In this feature about the renovation of Benjamin Franklin’s London residence, history Professor Gordon Wood, author of “The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin,” offers some insight.

In an opinion piece about rebuilding New Orleans, writer Andrew Ward cites Brown University research stating that 80 percent of the city’s black population may never return.

Literary critic Philip Marchand reviews “Paradoxy of Modernism,” a new book by Robert Scholes, research professor of modern culture and media.

Derek Bok, who will become the interim president of Harvard University in July, discusses his new book, “Our Underachieving Colleges,” and his views about assessing and improving the quality of undergraduate education and teaching throughout the nation’s colleges and universities.

Only 51 percent of last year’s high-school graduates who took the ACT examination had the reading skills they needed to succeed in college or job-training programs, the lowest proportion in more than a decade, according to a report scheduled for release today. Twenty-one percent of black students, 33 percent of Hispanic students, and 33 percent of students from families with annual incomes below $30,000 were prepared for college-level reading, the report said.

Former Harvard Professor Cornel West mentions President Ruth J. Simmons as a model for Harvard University’s next president. Others interviewed for the article included President Simmons on their lists of ideal candidates.

At its February meeting, the Brown Corporation increased tuition and fees for the 2006-07 academic year by 4.7 percent, to a total of $43,754 a year for undergraduates. Graduate student tuition will rise 5 percent, to $33,888 a year. Factors contributing to the increases include rising costs for energy, construction materials, health care and insurance. The article also mentions recent gifts to the University, and a new professorship.

In this opinion piece, Brown Medical School professors Mark Zimmerman and Gabor Keitner write that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support the use of a new type of surgical treatment for depression. The FDA recently approved vagus-nerve stimulation (VNS) surgery to treat chronic depression. Zimmerman and Keitner argue that non-surgical and more effective treatments exist, and that the rush to approve VNS surgery “may reflect current societal pressures for simple, technical fixes for complex problems.”

Colleges no longer will be required to deliver at least half their courses on a campus instead of online to qualify for federal student aid. The change, recently approved by Congress, is expected to be of enormous value to the commercial education industry.