Hazing is the beast in academe's basement, often lurking unseen and unreported, only to rise again and again despite countless rules and zero-tolerance policies. It takes many forms, some physically violent, some emotionally cruel, some booze-soaked, some silly. Since 1970, colleges have seen at least one hazing-related fatality each year, and the…

Any university that is seriously committed to equity must value faculty contributions to diversity made through teaching, research, and service. If diversity is truly part of the core academic mission, it should be included in the criteria used to evaluate and reward faculty achievement. Toward this end, the faculty of the University of…

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education is seeking help from Congress, and has asked two key members of Congress to hold hearings to determine if the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has shirked its responsibility to enforce higher-education desegregation agreements. In particular, leaders are worried that…

The government agency responsible for enforcing gender equity in college sports is falling down on the job, according to a report released by the National Women's Law Center. Over the past five years, the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights -- the administrative guardian of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the law that…

One of the nicest things about being on a search committee is getting to meet people from all over the campus, some of whom one had little or no contact with before. The downside of any search, though, despite some meals in classy restaurants, is the extra meetings, endless phone calls, numerous Equal Employment Opportunity and human-resources…

The texts of the Supreme Court's syllabus and unanimous opinion in the University of Pennsylvania vs. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is presented. The case involves release of peer-review records in a faculty sex discrimination suit. (MSE)

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court is requiring the University of Pennsylvania to give faculty peer-review documents to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for its investigation into a sex discrimination case. Academics fear infringement of academic freedom and privacy. (MSE)

The Secretary of Education's most recent report on educational quality argues that American schools have not improved enough. Issues addressed include trends in standardized test scores, strengthening curriculum content, assuring equal intellectual opportunity, establishing an ethos of achievement, recruiting and rewarding good teachers and…

The Supreme Court decision to let stand a lower-court ruling that allows a government agency to inspect confidential documents in a faculty tenure case is discussed. An appeal by Franklin and Marshall College on a decision granting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission access to tenure materials was declined. (MLW)

Data obtained from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show that the number of professionals employed to perform academic support rose by more than 60 percent between 1975 and 1985. The need to hire people to interpret, report, and monitor compliance with state and federal laws has inflated administrative ranks. (MLW)

A dramatization from a new work by black Harvard professor Derrick Bell is presented. In "And We Are Not Saved," the heroine describes how affirmative action at her university came to a screeching halt when it became too successful. (MLW)

Like many Americans caught up in the economic downturn, college students are worried about money. Now research indicates that financial worries may affect their academic performance. The author presents the results of this year's National Survey of Student Engagement. The survey reveals that more than a third of seniors and more than a quarter of…

A recent report from the Modern Language Association, "Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey," unfortunately passed over an important aspect of women's rise through the professorial ranks: how they move through the process of monograph publication, especially in comparison with male colleagues. As an acquiring editor in the scholarly and…

During this election year, many people who study race and education had hoped that the nomination of a black presidential candidate and the increased focus on race would have led to a related discussion of equal access to higher education and a turn toward a stronger commitment to the creation of a truly diverse society. However, unfortunately,…

College officials worry that too many of their peers use merit aid to "buy" students whose test scores will burnish their institutions' rankings in "U.S. News & World Report." In fact, the debate about financial aid on today's campuses has led to the near vilification of merit aid. The lament is that money is often diverted…