Oklahoma City University prides itself on treating its faculty and staff members like family. It is the kind of place where new employees are welcomed in the president's house, staff members kick in to raise money when a colleague faces hard times, and promising young workers are offered flexible work schedules and free tuition to help them…

This article reports on a conflict between the inventor of a medicine for dry eyes and the university where she worked, which highlights the pitfalls in commercialization of academic discoveries. Renee L. Kaswan, the former professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Georgia has been prodding the institution to be more aggressive in…

Back in the 1970s, when the author was an art professor at California State University at Northridge, he had a colleague who absolutely would not say anything about anybody that he would not say to that person's face. Marvin Harden, the African-American artist, originally came to Los Angeles in the late 1950s from segregated Austin, Texas, to play…

Describes how New York University has become the first private institution to recognize the right of teaching assistants to bargain collectively and possible implications for other private institutions. (EV)

Over two dozen colleges have experienced embezzlement in recent years. Many financial officials say colleges and universities are more vulnerable that private businesses because financial control is often decentralized. Employee theft has occurred at all kinds of institutions and at all levels of management. (MSE)

Discusses labor relations at Yale University, explaining that for 35 years, they have been negative, with 4,000 workers recently walking off the job. (EV)

Increasingly, college presidents and boards are likely to address some financial issues such as contracts, severance arrangements, and award of tenure status at the time of hiring. Early specification of terms increases presidents' job security, clarifies expectations, and reduces financial risk for institutions. (MSE)

The College of William and Mary (Virginia) has filed a complaint in federal court against a professor, saying he should be liable for damages stemming from sexual-harassment litigation by a student. The move indicates concern among institutions that sexual-harassment liability remain with the perpetrators, not the institution. (MSE)

Increases in costs to colleges and universities for employee health insurance have risen as much as 20 to 30 percent annually, requiring adjustments to control costs, a new philosophy of sharing costs with employees, increased proportions of payroll (now 6.1 percent) going for health care costs, and reductions in work force size. (DB)

Quality circles, in which a small group of employees meet frequently and voluntarily to study on-the-job problems and suggest solutions and improvements to the administration, which agrees to consider them, are a growing phenomenon, particularly in community colleges. (MSE)

To attract and keep faculty members with growing children, Columbia University (New York) is opening its own private school (K-8), with faculty apartments built on top. It is hoped the school and apartments will address faculty members' cost of living and quality of life concerns. Some public school proponents view the new school as a threat. (DB)

Health-promotion programs provided for higher education staff are increasing. They draw on the expertise of physical education and athletic staff, counseling services, and medical centers to encourage employees to adopt lifetime regimens of healthy living. (MSE)

The University of California at Berkeley has established an AIDS-education program to answer questions from worried students, faculty members, and staff employees. Policies are being developed for dealing with a series of complex logistical and philosophical questions that the disease is raising on campus. (MLW)

Conflicts in many states between administrators and disgruntled college employees have led to a surge of labor activism in academe, including strikes and protests, votes to unionize, disputes over evaluation and compensation, and court litigation. Conflicts involve teaching assistants, adjunct faculty, and tenured faculty alike. (MSE)

At a recent conference of academics, union organizers, and workers at Yale University (Connecticut) activity and rhetoric focused on reinforcing the ties that bind academe and labor, and particularly on the question, currently before the National Labor Relations Board, of whether Yale graduate students qualify as employees or students. Leaders of…