April 9, 2004

Paid Leave at Public Colleges vs. Private Ones; Family-Friendly Benefits That Go Unclaimed; Helping Dual-Career Couples Find Jobs; a Journal's Special Issue on 'Mothering in the Academy'

By ROBIN WILSON

Professors who want extended paid leave to care for a baby are much more likely to get it at a private university than at a public one.

A new report by the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University of Virginia says private institutions are almost twice as likely as public universities to offer paid leave beyond the six weeks that doctors typically authorize for women after they give birth. Thirty-four percent of private universities in the project's study offered extended