Construction at colleges around the country is continuing despite national economic problems, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Wednesday. While a handful of universities have postponed construction projects, most schools are continuing with their renovation plans and some are speeding up their projects to limit the effects of rising construction costs, according to the Chronicle. To deal with higher renovation costs, public universities are depending on their state legislatures for funding. To pay for construction on the seven campuses of the University of Maine, for example, the state government in Maine approved a $23 million bond measure in November. Private colleges that partner with for-profit construction companies are relying on school endowments to obtain the extra funds. "We've been projecting significant construction-cost escalations for the past several years, and unfortunately we've been right," Michael McKay, Princeton University's vice president for facilities told the Chronicle.
Faculty at four-year colleges in the United States saw their salary increase from 2007 to 2008, The Daily Princetonian reported Wednesday. Full and associate professors' salaries increased by 4 percent, those for assistant professors raised by 3.9 percent and newly hired assistant professors received a 3.3 percent salary increase on average, according to a recent survey conducted by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. This increase is higher than last year's jump of 3.8 percent. Private universities saw higher salary boosts than their public counterparts, a reversal of last year's pattern. The survey also revealed imbalances among professors teaching in different fields: While a full law professor received a median salary of $129,527, median salaries for full professors in mathematics were $81,818, and full professors in English, who were paid a median of $76,793, received the lowest salary.
At least 86 colleges have been hit by a recent e-mail scam, an informal survey conducted by campus computer-security administrators revealed. The e-mails, started by an unknown group of internet hackers, ask students, professors and staff members at the colleges into giving away personal information such as their college-network password, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Similar scams affect online banking and payment services. The survey, conducted by the Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center at Indiana University at Bloomington, polled 250 colleges asking if they had been affected by the scam and received 107 responses. Of the 86 that responded affirmatively, 61 said someone at the university had fallen for the scam, Douglas Pearson, the Center's technical director told the Chronicle. While the source of the e-mails is not yet known, "a good number of the attacks appear to be from a common source," Pearson said.
