AMHERST, Mass. - Americans'' interest in sports is limited, for the most part, to watching people play them on television, according to a new book co-authored by Rodney B. Warnick, a faculty member in the department of hotel, restaurant and travel administration at the University of Massachusetts. While mountain biking and snowboarding may play well in the media, American adults are far more likely to golf, walk, or gamble in their spare time, say Warnick, and his colleague, John R. Kelly of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

AMHERST, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts, along with local colleges and churches, will mark the arrival of the year 2000 by ringing bells at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000.

AMHERST, Mass. - Michael Ash, assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, is looking at how managed care in the U.S. health care system is changing the type of work performed by nurses, licensed practical nurses, and orderlies. Ash says his research includes sections of the country where managed care has had a large impact on health care providers as well as areas where managed care plays less of a role.

AMHERST, Mass. - The University of Massachusetts is one of just five schools chosen nationwide to participate in a program that will offer graduate students in chemistry a sense of what it''s like to be a professor. The UMass project is part of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program and is funded with a two-year, $20,000 grant awarded by the American Chemical Society. Professor Julian Tyson is director of the program at UMass.