April 25, 1993

From Florida to California, from Wisconsin to Louisiana, colleges and universities are renovating old dormitories and building new ones. The reason, officials say, is that students today have higher living standards and higher expectations. To stay competitive when university enrollment has been declining nationwide, schools are updating housing in an effort to attract and keep students. "It's a trend that will continue throughout the decade," said W. Garry Johnson, president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers-International, based in Columbus, Ohio.

THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE By T. Coraghessan Boyle. Illustrated. 476 pp. New York: Viking. $22.50.

The biggest pool in New York City, the AquaCenter, is scheduled to open in June at the Asphalt Green Swim, Sports Training and Rehabilitation Center in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. The pool is 170 feet long, 60 feet wide and up to 16 feet deep, which is large enough for international competitions. It also has a floor that can be raised and lowered hydraulically without draining the water, which makes it possible to have teaching sessions for those confined to wheelchairs. More than 250,000 swimmers a year are expected to use the pool. Admission fees and program costs have not yet been set.

He spreads his hands in frustration. He openly admits that he does not have the answers. He is impatient with strategies that have worked before. Only now and again, as when he talks about a new route to London, does the old confident, ebullient Robert L. Crandall burst through. Mr. Crandall, the hard-charging chairman of American Airlines, led his industry on an expansionary binge in the 1980's that has now come back to haunt him and the industry. He was the one who pioneered the frequent-flyer program, innovative discount fares and a two-tier wage system that enabled the airline to cut costs while it expanded. And he was the one who built a dominant computer reservation system that often made his airline the first choice of travel agents.

It was only a quarter of a century ago, but sometimes it seems light years. On April 29, 1968, a date judged astrologically propitious, "Hair" opened at the Biltmore Theater, bringing to Broadway love beads, polymorphous sex, full-frontal nudity, bare feet, anti-Vietnam War protests, dope and the conviction that a new world -- free, fearless and unfettered -- was dawning.