The University of Calgary has stopped short of expelling eight students who are members of a campus anti-abortion group after finding them guilty of nonacademic misconduct for defying campus security staff while setting up a graphic display on university property, according to a report in The Calgary Herald. The students say they will challenge the university's punishment—a  formal warning, which also threatened more stringent punishment, including expulsion, for another offense. The university held a formal disciplinary hearing last month, CBC News reported.

Most tenured professors in Canada have salaries well above the $100,000 mark, according to the latest figures, covering pay data for 2007-8, from Statistics Canada. The highest-paid professors are at the University of Toronto, where they earn more than $150,000; closely following them are professors at the Universities of Calgary and of British Columbia. Canadian faculty members are highly unionized and have the highest starting salaries among academics in the world, exceeding pay scales for faculty members at American colleges and universities.

Those who studied at Canadian private career colleges are twice as likely to default on their student loans as those who attended public colleges and universities, according to an investigative report by The Globe and Mail. The for-profit students made up 17 percent of federal student aid but are responsible for more than 30 percent of the value of delinquent loans. That is more than twice the rate of such bad debts in the United States, according to the latest figures. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last year said students in the for-profit sector were most likely to default.

The president of the College of the North Atlantic, Jean Madill, tendered her resignation on Monday shortly after the government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced that at least a third of the staff at the college's Qatar campus had been overpaid by $5-million. The provincial government did not say whether the resignation was linked to the overpayments, according to the CBC. The salary error means the money must be paid back to the government by the employees, according to a report in the St John's Telegram. More than 300 Canadians are on the staff of the Qatar campus, which bills itself as "Qatar's premier comprehensive technical college."

The Canadian Association of University Teachers voted late last week to lift the censure of First Nations University of Canada that it imposed 17 months ago. The rarely used sanction had asked academics to basically boycott the university because of longstanding governance problems, which the association says have now been addressed. However, the federal government is refusing to commit to long-term support, leaving the university's future in limbo. Students are using YouTube to drum up support.

Toronto's York University says it plans a collegial discussion "aimed at identifying the core values associated with academic freedom and developing a statement of best practices," as recommended in a comprehensive report about how the institution handled a controversial conference last year on the Middle East. The report, by a former Canadian Supreme Court justice. Frank Iacobucci, who is also a former president of the University of Toronto, was prompted by, among other things, an academic outcry when Canada's science minister requested a review of the federal government's financial support for the conference.

The University of Montreal and more than 2,400 striking lecturers have reached an agreement that, pending a union vote on Sunday, would end a six-week strike, according to CBC News. The striking faculty members hit the picket lines over a number of issues, including class sizes, salaries, and pensions. The strike affected about 30,000 students. The university, in a French-language news release, says classes will resume on Monday and the semester will be extended, forcing a later start for the summer session.

Seven leading scientists in North America, Europe, and Asia who "push the boundaries of medical science" are this year's winners of Canada's Gairdner awards, often referred to as the baby Nobels. At least a quarter of the past recipients of the Gairdners have gone on to win Nobel Prizes, according to the CBC. This year's winners will each receive 100,000 Canadian dollars (about $99,500) at a ceremony in October to honor their work in malaria, epilepsy, cancer, and heart disease.

Football players at some of Canada's top universities may come under scrutiny by both the police and doping authorities as an investigation into steroid and human-growth-hormone trafficking widens, according to The Globe and Mail. The University of Waterloo banned an unnamed football player from its campus this week, "pending the disposition of legal proceedings." Doping authorities then tested Waterloo's entire 65-man team and plans to visit other campuses, amid concerns that athletes at nearby universities such as Wilfrid Laurier, McMaster, Guelph, and Western Ontario may also be involved. The governing body for intercollegiate athletics, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, said in a news release that it is concerned. It began a drug-testing program in 1990, and since then 56 athletes have tested positive.

The Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs issued a statement Tuesday night saying it would make $3-million (Canadian) available so students attending the First Nations University of Canada can finish the academic year—even though both the federal and the Saskatchewan governments blocked appropriations to the university in February because of repeated governance problems. The CBC reported that the money would pay for about 1,000 students now enrolled at First Nations to take courses offered by other institutions.

The $3-million would have to be funneled through an institution in good standing, the minister's statement said. Saskatchewan restored its support of the troubled university a week ago after an agreement that gave the University of Regina financial control of First Nations.