Given the shaky economy and the massive budget cuts facing the state of Tennessee, readers will be unsurprised to read in The Daily Helmsman, the University of Memphis’s student newspaper, that it has been cutting back on part-time instructors, leaving full-time professors and the part timers who remain with their fingers in the dam.

The department of foreign languages and literatures, for example, has lost 11 part-time faculty members since last fall (leaving it with 16), while the department of mathematical science has only 10 part-time instructors — 58.3 percent fewer than it had in fall of 2004 — the newspaper reports....

Every now and then, commentators on this blog will ask a really good question. Like this one: How are folks new to the academic job market supposed to learn every little nuance that seems to be expected in the search process?

I think that’s a significant question: Should we settle for trial-and-error learning as the best way to navigate the market’s subtleties? Web sites are helpful, indeed, but when an entry-level applicant doesn’t know the difference between an assistant-level appointment and an associate one, then something is wrong with the system itself.

What is the best way to help graduate students prepare themselves, not only for the search but for the profession itself? My sense is that graduate schools do very little of this anymore, and mentorship is not, perhaps, what it once was. In my case, I learned a great deal during a...

Despite the shriveled academic job market, some colleges and universities in New England are stepping up hiring to make the most of this year’s skewed ratio of candidates to jobs, The Boston Globe reports.

Among those aggressively recruiting tenure-track faculty members, while many of their peer institutions sit on the sidelines, are Northeastern (46 positions) and Tufts (52 positions) Universities, though Amherst, Emerson, and Wellesley Colleges, as well as College of the Holy Cross, are also still on the prowl for new professors, the newspaper reports.

According to the Globe …

They’re able to do so amid the economic downtown by cutting back in other areas: delaying construction, limiting travel, even...

President Obama is scheduled to sign a bill today that will make it easier for some workers to win lawsuits over discriminatory pay inequities under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The legislation overturns a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., that held that employees have only 180 days to file such a lawsuit, starting from the time a company takes a discriminatory action on pay.

The bill, named for the case’s plaintiff, Lilly Ledbetter, gives employees 180 days to file suit after any discriminatory paycheck, essentially restarting the clock each time they are paid.

The new law is a swift victory for the American Association of University Professors, which made it a legislative...

Buckling under pressure from academics at the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian government has decided to exempt those and a number of other universities from quotas in faculty appointments. News of the exemption was revealed at a meeting on Wednesday of the institutes’ council, the highest decision-making body for the engineering schools.

The council was told that a bill passed in December by the upper house of parliament spells out the representation for India’s lowest castes and classes in federal-government posts, including at public universities, but exempts a total of 47 higher-education institutions, labeled “institutions of excellence,” from faculty quotas.

It is almost certain that the...

The trustees of Oral Roberts University announced today the selection of a new president to replace Richard L. Roberts, who resigned in November 2007 amid allegations of improperly using university resources for political activities and to bankroll an extravagant lifestyle for his family.

Mark Rutland, who is now president of Southeastern University, a Christian institution in Lakeland, Fla., will take office at Oral Roberts in July. Ralph Fagin will remain as interim president of the Oklahoma institution until then.

Mr. Rutland has been president of Southeastern for 10 years. In a statement...

I ran across this little gem the other day: a list of 10 questions job candidates should never ask in a corporate interview. It made me think of a few of the more painful questions I’ve heard over the years.

From a new Ph.D. with no teaching experience: “Why can’t I start at associate professor rank? That would pay more money.”

From an incredibly energetic young candidate: “How long do we have to wait before I can be promoted to department chair? I want to be a president before I’m 40.”

So, what would you include in higher ed’s version of top questions applicants should never ask in a job interview?

One element of my interactions with job candidates this year is almost entirely new: I find myself in long discussions with them of my university’s financial position, including issues of enrollment, endowment earnings, and other matters that should concern anyone job hunting in academe these days.

I try to provide them with a clear picture of the situation for the next few years, and to locate our circumstances in the larger picture of higher-education finances. This new practice seems fair to me, and although some candidates are savvy and/or brave enough to bring up the subject themselves, not all of them are, and I believe that kind of information should be part of their decision-making process.

I have two questions for interviewers: Have you informed candidates about your institution’s finances? And have you had any odd or difficult issues arise...

Here’s the latest hiring news:

“Sue” was a new professor at a tuition-driven institution. Student retention was an issue that deans and program chairs talked about day in and day out.

One day “Dean Behooves” told Sue that her retention rate for the fall term was too low; he warned her that low retention in the following term would lead to a nonrenewal of her contract. His opinion was that her course requirements were too substantial and that her grading standards were too high. Shaken, Sue pulled out her syllabi and pondered her requirements and grading rubrics. She looked over her fall-semester student evaluations, which were high. Her final grade distributions were consistent with those of her previous teaching experiences. She decided to ask around in the faculty lounge to see what other faculty members thought. One colleague told her that there was a student culture of...