The 2010 Faculty Work Life Survey found that minority professors' job satisfaction at Cornell University dropped 16 percentage points since 2005, while white professors' satisfaction increased by 5 percentage points during the same time period, The Cornell Daily Sun reported. Approximately 66 percent of minority professors reported satisfaction with their jobs at Cornell, down from 82 percent when the university collected the same data five years earlier. Meanwhile, 82 percent of white professors said they were happy with their jobs up from 77 percent according to The Daily Sun. Several minority professors interviewed by The Daily Sun who wished to remain anonymous cited various reasons for the drop, including overwork, isolation due to a low number of minority faculty and their relegation to ethnic studies, often considered by others as secondary academic subjects, The Daily Sun reported.
The Association of American Medical Colleges will launch a redesign of the Medical College Admissions Test as early as 2015, prompted by a recommendation from a special panel, Inside Higher Ed reported. The changes, which will undergo extensive review by the AAMC, will include the elimination of the test's writing section. A new section on behavioral and social sciences will also be added, an addition that may force prospective doctors to include more psychology and sociology courses in their undergraduate education, according to Inside Higher Ed. The 5.5 hour test will also last 1.5 hours longer. The changes should help minority students whose scores have traditionally lagged below those of white and Asian students showcase their strengths as well as enable medical schools to select applicants able to treat patients ethically and sensitively, Senior Director of the MCAT program Karen Mitchell said in an interview with Inside Higher Ed.
A high school education, a greater number of daily activities and increased social contact with non-substance users were all correlated with more attempts to quit smoking among patients with severe mental illness or substance abuse problems, according to a study authored by six Dartmouth Medical School professors. Although 75 percent of participants tried to quit smoking at least once, only 17 percent were still not smoking at the conclusion of the 11-year study. Men were also more likely than women to attempt quitting multiple times, according to the study, which was published in the journal Psychiatric Services this month. The authors Joelle Ferron, Mary Brunette, Xiaofei He, Haiyi Xie, Gregory McHugo and Robert Drake emphasized the need for treatment providers to administer evidence-based therapies in the future, Psychiatric Services reported.
