• Virginia Commonwealth University expects to cut 91 jobs over the next two years, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Meanwhile, the University of Nebraska system could slash hundreds of jobs if Gov. Dave Heineman's proposed budget cuts go through, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

• Colgate University has named Jeffrey Herbst, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University of Ohio, as its next president. He'll replace Lyle Roelofs, who has been serving as interim president since Rebecca S. Chopp left earlier this...

Hundreds of students at the University of Maryland at College Park marched on the administration building last Thursday to protest the dismissal of Cordell Black, a popular diversity officer who has occupied his post for 18 years, The Washington Post reports.

Mr. Black will be let go as associate provost for equity and diversity at the end of the year as part of a university effort to cut costs. The university plans to fill the position with a part-time administrator. However, Mr. Black, as a tenured professor, may remain on the faculty, the newspaper reports.

The Post described the demonstration as "one of the largest demonstrations at the College Park campus since the Vietnam War era." According to the newspaper ...

The mood during...

Over at Crooked Timber, Michael Bérubé describes how "extra extra dismal" this year's job market looks to be in modern languages. Why the extra "extra"? Well, because ...

the effects of the Great Collapse of 2008 are only hitting this part of the academic machinery now.  Colleges and universities have already taken—and administered—hits elsewhere, via salary cuts and/or freezes, furloughs, elimination of travel and research budgets, etc.  And I don’t know how many searches were cancelled last year after being advertised.  But I do know that in the modern languages, we might be looking at a 50 percent dropoff in jobs from last year, and there’s no federal stimulus coming to bail us out. ...

He goes on to explain that in recent years...

According to a recent Chronicle article, 23 private university presidents took home more than $1-million last year, up from nine the previous year. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, NY, came in at no. 1, with a total annual compensation package of nearly $1.6-million.

Among the other top earners were:

• Steadman Upham, U. of Tulsa: $1,485,275

• Cornelius M. Kerwin, American U.: $1,419,339

• David J. Sargent, Suffolk U.: $1,496,593

• Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia U.: $1,380,035

Meanwhile, over at 11D, Laura McKenna is quick to point out the...

In these tough times, faculty and staff job openings may be fewer and far between, but the market for mental-health professionals may be heating up, as stressed-out students turn increasingly to campus counselors for help with problems big and small, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports in a recent article. Suzanne Boyll, counseling director at La Salle University, told the newspaper that "as of Oct. 16, the number of counseling sessions had spiked 48 percent to 204, up from 137 the same time last year." And counselors at other universities have reported a similar trend.

To meet the growing demand, some universities are hiring more counselors. Temple University, for example, has added three counselors over the last five years, "at a cost of about $250,000" while...

What do fallen university leaders and felines have in common? Apparently, they both land on their feet. One need look no further than James L. Oblinger, the ex-chancellor of North Carolina State who resigned over the Mary Easley hiring scandal, and Richard Herman, the ex-chancellor of the University of Illinois whose fall resulted from an admissions scandal. Both are finalists in the search for a new president of New Mexico State University, Lesboprof observes in her latest post.

She notes, however, that fallen female university chiefs may be less fortunate than their...

• Faculty layoffs at the University of Maine system are likely, Chancellor Richard Pattenaude said this week, the Kennebec Journal reports. Meanwhile the president of Dartmouth College, Jim Yong-Kim, says he's also considering faculty job cuts, WCAX.com reports.

• "Is your administration using 'the economy' as an excuse to extort more work for less pay from an already overburdened faculty?," Marc Bousquet asks on the Brainstorm blog. Howard Bunsis, Eastern Michigan University accounting professor and American Association of University Professors treasurer,...

• T. Alan Hurwitz, president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, will become the next chief of Gallaudet University, starting in January 2010, The Ticker reports. He succeeds Robert Davila, who is leaving in December. See an article in The Washington Post for details.

• Ex-Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, announced last week that he is stepping down as president of Des Moines University in order to explore the possibility of running for governor again, The Iowa Independent reports.

• Two ex-administrators at

• It's official. The University of Illinois board of trustees has named ex-president Stanley Ikenberry as interim president of the three-campus system, the Chicago Tribune reports. Ikenberry, who led the university system from 1979 to 1995, will (re)take office on January 1.

• The longtime president of the Catholic University of America, the Very Rev. David M. O'Connell, has announced that he plans to vacate his post in August 2010, after more than a decade on the job, The Washington Post reports. See a

Lesboprof says she's fed up with "artful dodgers" — senior straight white men who don't pitch in at faculty committee meetings and leave mundane tasks to their female colleagues — and she's putting them on notice.

No longer will she tolerate scenarios such as this one:

As we wrap up the first meeting of new committee to change the world, we start to review and assign the list of tasks we identified to complete before the next meeting. Of course, a few people step up to take on tasks, but those few are women. I suggest that one of the senior white men take on another task, which I swear to God was something as mundane as "ask someone for a document," and the Artful Dodger quickly passes it off to a junior white man. As a result, Dr. Dodger has no responsibilities as we walk...