• B. Joseph White, president of the University of Illinois system, resigned yesterday in the wake of an admissions scandal in which well-connected applicants were admitted over more qualified ones, The Chronicle reports. He'll step down on December 31. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune reports that a former U. of Illinois president, Stanley Ikenberry, could replace him as interim president.

• Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, has turned down a raise, the Associated Press reports.
 
• The president of Florida Keys Community College, Jill Landesberg-Boyle, opted to go on leave until her three-year contract runs out next June rather than face the possibility of being ousted by the college's governing board, The Miami Herald reports. Landesberg-Boyle, who upped student enrollment and brought millions of dollars to the college during her two-year tenure, has been accused...

• A recent Ticker post noted that some retired University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professors have offered to teach free. So why hasn't the administration jumped at their offer? Historiann and Margaret Soltan share their theories.

• Brian Leiter considers whether interviews are a help or a hindrance in hiring the best faculty members.

• GayProf notes that in these lean times many universities are more closely monitoring student enrollment and canceling courses that have too few students. That's why he's come up with some nifty ideas for keeping students from dropping his course. My favorites are below, but be sure to check out the complete list:

* If they look under their seat, they will find that each and every one of them has a new car!

* By the end of my class, at least one of them will have a recording contract.

* Instead of lecturers, I will be interviewing numerous...

In a recent post, David Evans described the growing burdens that have been placed on faculty members in recent years. According to Tenured Radical, however, many service burdens are unfairly distributed, falling mainly on academic do-gooders, "who work hardest for the institution" yet "reap the fewest material benefits because they publish at a slower pace."

She goes on to note that ...

Ironically, they often acquire tremendous respect from those other colleagues who are working equally hard, are viewed as really good citizens, capable people, and the sort who you really want to have around when solving a problem, running a tenure case, or starting up a new project. ... The rewards inherent to being respected by others, and the feeling of being truly valuable to an enterprise, is seductive, and for good reason. Colleges and universities could not get the work done without people like...

• The University of Cincinnati has picked Gregory H. Williams, president of the City College of New York, as its next chief, The New York Times reports.

• Thompson Rivers University, in British Columbia, has booted its president, Kathleen Scherf, who during her one-year tenure was known for calling people "dude" and streaking her hair, The Ticker reports.

• A growing number of faculty members at the University of California are backing a planned systemwide walkout on September 24 to protest the university's handling of the budget crisis, The Ticker reports. Per the San Francisco Chronicle, "What began in recent weeks as a proposed faculty walkout coinciding with the first day of school next Thursday at some campuses -- including UCSF, UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz -- has grown to include graduate and undergraduate student groups, and labor unions representing thousands of employees."

• ...

Kudos to Female Science Professor for refusing to hide the fact that she is both a science professor and a mom (as some academic parents feel they must):

Rather than hiding the fact that I am a mother, I want to show students that women are mothers and professors. Or are professors and not mothers. Whatever. Just like real people not in academia.

Furthermore, I think that others in academia (faculty, administrators, postdocs, and students) should be more, not less, aware of the issues faced by faculty with young children, particularly those faculty without a stay-at-home partner.

Amen. If we ever hope to end the stereotype that women (and men, for that matter) can't simultaneously have successful careers and be active parents, and get universities to adopt more family-friendly policies, then more academic moms and dads need to come out of the parental closet and be upfront about the...

• The University of Illinois is suspending its online Global Campus program and dismissing its staff members, The News-Gazette reports. 

Virtually the entire University of Illinois Global Campus staff, which services about 500 students in the online education program, has been notified of layoffs. ...

Global Campus had 44 academic employees at its peak, said its current director, Charles Evans, but lost several staffers due to retirements and promotions.

Its remaining 32 employees were given notice of no reappointment almost three weeks ago. Of those, 20 were given six months' notice, and a dozen given a full year.

The terminations won't be final until after the next board of trustees meeting Sept. 10, according to the UI's chief spokesman, Tom Hardy. ...

Global Campus is a $10 million initiative to expand online education opportunities for people who could not attend one of the...

The University of Florida will use federal stimulus funds to hire up to 100 professors and rebuild its
faculty ranks, which were slashed over the past year because of budget cuts, The Miami Herald reports.

As the newspaper puts it:

UF President Bernie Machen on Thursday told the Faculty Senate during a meeting in Gainesville that new professors will be hired in the coming year and will help to offset the recent loss of 81 professors.

The stimulus money will serve as a "bridge'' until higher undergraduate tuition rates that went into effect this week for Florida residents generate enough revenue to cover the new professors' salaries.

Some colleges, like the University of South Florida, have used stimulus money to stave off layoffs. Some -- including USF, Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida International University -- are using it to hire new faculty, but none on as large a scale as...

• According to The Boston Globe, the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government continues to take in high-profile ex-politicians. As a recent Chronicle article notes, however, Harvard isn't the only popular destination for former politicos.

• Meanwhile, over at The New York Times, lawyers and professors are weighing in on whether the University of California at Berkeley should sack John C. Yoo, a tenured law professor who wrote the Justice Department memos that were used to justify the torture of terrorism suspects.

• Via The Ticker comes the news that Old Dominion University has cancelled its $40,000-a-year contract with a Virginia delegate, Phillip Hamilton, a Republican, thanks to e-mail messages obtained by The Virginian-Pilot, which revealed that he expected the university to hire him to lead a new teacher-training center when he sought start-up...

From Piled Higher & Deeper, a comic strip by Jorge Cham:

The president of Ball State University, Jo Ann Gora, will forgo an extended leave of absence that was promised to her in favor of an additional $220,000 in pay, The Star Press reports.

As the newspaper tells it:

When she was hired in 2004, Gora's employment contract provided her a six-month leave of absence if she was still serving as president five years later, which is August of this year.

In the fall of 2007, however, the university's board of trustees amended the contract to give Gora the option of receiving additional compensation in lieu of taking six months of paid leave of absence.

Under the amended contract, Gora, whose 2008 salary was $356,400, is entitled to "additional compensation equal to 50 percent of your then current annual base salary," plus "an amount equal to 25 percent of such additional compensation."

The university was unable to confirm to The Star Press on...