As colleges add services for the growing number of student veterans, they find that many women in that population seem reluctant to participate. On many campuses, officials find that only a sprinkling of women take part in programs and services designed to support veterans. The low turnout appears to be at odds with the number of female veterans…

Colleges have added managers and support personnel at a steady, vigorous clip over the past 20 years, new research shows, far outpacing the growth in student enrollment and instructors. Support staff--like budget analysts, computer specialists, and loan counselors--nearly doubled from 1987 to 2007. Meanwhile, jobs for instructors increased by only…

Congress and other watchdogs have grilled colleges in recent years for what some regard as the excessive pay of their chief executives. This article reports that a "Chronicle" analysis has found that presidents and chancellors are a minority of the highest-compensated college employees. Chief executives accounted for only 11 out of 88…

When "The Chronicle" asked college employees what they value about their jobs, they put the physical environment in which they work at the top of the list. They said they were concerned not only that their spaces met their needs but also that their campuses had a pleasing appearance. That's no surprise to Thomas G. Contos, university architect at…

Describes a program at Western Michigan University that offers full-time, nontenure-track employees the opportunity to earn tenure, providing new tenure rights to instructors who teach in certain professional fields. Describes opposition to the program and reactions of those affected. (SLD)

A group of seven private colleges in Oregon, frustrated with the erratic pricing of health care in the state, decided to band together, drop their health-plan providers, and create a consortium to self-insure their employees. The Oregon Independent Colleges Employee Benefits Trust came into existence on May 1, 2003 and offers a collective…

Recent reports examining the status of women on college campuses are drawing the same conclusions reached in reports prepared 20 years ago: that female professors, staff, and administrators in academe face a hostile work environment. Although the issues are clearer and some improvements are seen, changes are fragmentary. (MSE)

From 1989-90 to 1991-92, the number of nonteaching professionals in colleges and universities has risen by 4.5 percent, despite the recession and concern over "administrative bloat." Overall, employment in higher education over that period grew only 0.4 percent. Faculty numbers increased by 1.5 percent. However, personnel in all other…

Two state courts have reached opposite conclusions on whether universities must provide health benefits to domestic partners of gay employees. A New Jersey appeals court unanimously ruled that partners of Rutgers University employees do not qualify for family benefits. Also in a unanimous decision in Alaska, the state Supreme Court ruled that the…

Increasingly, colleges and universities are using procurement cards, which are credit cards with limited usage, for institutional faculty and staff to make small purchases without going through costly and inefficient purchasing channels. Some concerns include distribution of cards, increased liability, and monitoring of expenditures. (MSE)

Increasingly, colleges are finding it hypocritical to have nondiscrimination policies protecting gay faculty and staff but deny benefits available to married employees. Institutions have adopted different criteria to determine who qualifies as a "spousal equivalent." The standards may face legal challenges from unmarried heterosexual couples. (MSE)

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)

The policy of Northeastern University (Massachusetts) to actively recruit and promote openly gay and lesbian employees has provoked heated debate. Some criticize the policy as providing special privileges to homosexuals and violating the spirit of affirmative action; others see it as a logical step in ending discrimination. (MSE)

A confidential national survey of Division I athletics departments (n=87 universities) conducted by the University of Texas (Austin) found men's basketball coaches the highest-paid, with football coaches second. The report contains blind lists of salaries and compensation packages paid to each of 70 employee categories (administrators, coaches,…

Across Scandinavia, higher education institutions are acknowledging incidents of sexual harassment and developing policy and procedures to address them. The issue emerged after a University of Stockholm survey found 12% of all female employees on campus, including many graduate students, had experienced some harassment on the job. Initiatives…