Officials at the University of California, Berkeley announced on Tuesday that they will eliminate roughly 200 jobs in early 2011 to save $20 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The decision was inspired by recommendations made by Bain and Company, a consulting firm that the University hired last year to identify waste in the University's spending. The 200 positions will be eliminated through layoffs, voluntary separations, retirements and attrition, adding to the 600 positions already cut at the University since last year, according to the Chronicle. Twenty-seven departments at UC Berkeley have been asked to reconsider whether positions in their administrative structures can be reduced or combined. Critics of the changes, while acknowledging that unnecessary executive positions do exist at the University, have raised concerns that the elimination of positions will reduce the resources available to students.
Reports of bedbug infestations at colleges and universities across the United States have been progressively surfacing this fall, particularly in New York City, Inside Higher Ed reported. Students at Catawba College were ordered to launder and bag their fabric belongings and evacuate their dorms as their rooms were fumigated to eliminate the pinhead-size insects, which can leave welts on humans who have been bitten. Other universities, such as the University of Colorado at Boulder and Wake Forest University, inspected and treated several housing units for bedbugs. Calls for eradication are expected to increase now that students have returned to school, entomologist Wayne Walker told Inside Higher Ed. Pennsylvania State University has created the Center Region Bedbug Coalition, which seeks to educate the University about bedbugs through training events and presentations.
The legislative committee that oversees rules for all New Hampshire state agencies voted yesterday for the state Insurance Department to revise recently proposed changes to the rules governing the Joint Underwriting Association, The Union Leader reported. Doctors and state officials told The Union Leader they were optimistic about an evolving compromise on how to resolve the fate of $110 million in excess reserves in the JUA's malpractice fund. The use of this surplus has been a hot-button issue in New Hampshire politics ever since the State Legislature attempted to use the money to balance the 2010-2011 budget, a move that was blocked by the state Supreme Court. Critics of the rule changes are concerned the JUA could lose its tax-exempt status and that the new rules will allow the state legislature to decide how to use the surplus, according to The Union Leader.
