Mark G. Wessel, dean of the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, has abruptly resigned after an investigation into a degree awarded there in 2004, the year he became permanent dean.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that Mr. Wessel stepped down last week as a result of what the school described as “an error in judgment” involving “the approval of excessive transfer credits and excessive units for independent study in lieu of course work” in the awarding of a master’s degree in 2004.

Citing privacy laws, university officials did not release the name of the degree recipient. They are investigating whether other degrees were improperly awarded as well.

Mr. Wessel was an economist and financial analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy before joining the Heinz school, in 1993. He served in multiple administrative positions at the school,...

A report in Newsweek suggests that more and more foreign universities are looking to U.S. institutions for top administrative talent.

With government support for higher education on the decrease, many foreign universities are looking for candidates with fund-raising expertise, and see it in top administrators at major American institutions. Newsweek gives, as examples, the recent hiring of Yale University provosts by the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

“When next year’s crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009, they’ll be joined by a new face: Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old Yale provost who will become Oxford’s vice chancellor—a position equivalent to university president in the United States, with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the august institution.”

“You have been asked to chair a search. … What are you responsible for?”

That’s the topic of the first in a series of “how to” posts that the blogger Tenured Radical plans to write about the forthcoming hiring season. Some of the posts will focus on the hiring side of the table, and some on the candidates.

Among the chair’s obligations, Tenured Radical says, is to oversee the ethical conduct of the search committee and create and manage the timetable. Perhaps most important, she says, the chair is responsible for “communicating with the candidates in a timely and responsible way.”

“Given the state of the job market, there is very little that is more important than this, as far as I can tell. … You would be shocked at how many job applications go entirely unacknowledged — no note that it has been received, no note informing candidates who did not receive an offer who was hired. ...

The ex-president of South Carolina State University, who was fired last December after a negative performance review, has sued the university and its trustees for allegedly defaming and conspiring against him, according to a report on The Chronicle’s News Blog.

In his lawsuit, Andrew Hugine Jr. also claims the university breached his employment contract. He is seeking up to $1-million in damages from the university and up to $2-million from trustees.

“Mr. Hugine, the university’s president since 2003, was in the second year of a five-year contract when he was fired in December. Trustees based his dismissal on a negative performance review, which cited poor fund raising and student retention.”

“The lawsuit says trustees ‘met, schemed, planned, and conspired’ to create the false job review, which led to Mr. Hugine’s termination, according to an article in The Times and...

Citing widespread unrest among faculty members and alumni, Baylor University’s regents fired the president, John M. Lilley, effective immediately, according to a report in The Chronicle.

Just three years ago, then-president Robert B. Sloan Jr. left the job amid controversy.

While his predecessor’s downfall was marked by deep philosophical rifts over the future of Baylor, the world’s largest Baptist university, Mr. Lilley’s firing appears to be due instead to clashes over his management decisions and style.

Said Howard K. Batson, chair of the regents: ““A lot of the faculty were upset, and our faculty are important to us. The board lost the confidence in John’s ability to unite the various Baylor constituencies.”

Read more here.

Professors, administrators, and staff members in the middle of their careers are more likely than other employees to be dissatisfied with their jobs, career advancement, and the fairness of the workplace, according to an extensive survey conducted by The Chronicle.

More than 15,000 employees were surveyed at 89 colleges and universities that participated in The Chronicle‘s first-ever Great Colleges to Work For project.

“When employees hit their late 40s or after eight years in a campus job — just after many faculty members have come up for tenure — workers reach their lowest levels of satisfaction on several measures. …”

“The excitement wears off when the honeymoon phase ends,” says Richard K. Boyer, principal and managing partner of ModernThink LLC, a Wilmington, Del., human-resources-consulting company, which managed the survey for The Chronicle. “Just like in corporate...

Falling home prices have both helped and hurt colleges and universities in their recruiting, according to a report in The Chronicle.

“For some institutions, the collapsing real-estate market would be a great recruitment tool—if their state economies weren’t also ailing.

‘For the openings that we’ve had, there are more attractive prices than they’ve seen in the last couple years,’ said David B. Ashley, president of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.”

Job candidates who already own homes have found it challenging to sell them and make a career move to a new institution. However, junior faculty hires are often first-time buyers, and the struggling real-estate market has made it possible for them to purchase homes, especially in cities where the housing stock has been out of reach.

“A few weeks after Robert J. Alexander arrived in Northern California last month, he...

Want to know which colleges have the best tenure policies? Or those that provide a healthy work-life balance? Or where administrators and faculty members have a good working relationship?

Watch The Chronicle‘s Web site on Monday, July 14, for the results of the first-ever survey of Great Colleges to Work For, academe’s version of Fortune‘s Best Companies to Work For.

The Chronicle plans to make this an annual project. For more information on next year’s survey, click here.