Although many student senates at universities in North Carolina have condemned a referendum on the state legislature's ballot to ban gay marriage and civil unions, institutions of higher learning treat LGBT rights in a variety of ways, as they follow differing regulations to the types of benefits they are allowed to offer their employees' domestic partners, Inside Higher Ed reported. As a private institution, Duke University offers full medical and other benefits to families of LGBT employees, but state universities are forbidden by law to provide their employees' same-sex partners with any medical benefits other than joining campus gyms, Inside Higher Ed reported.
A judge for the U.S. Department of Education issued a decision on Thursday nullifying a 2010 finding that Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University violated the Clery Act by not taking earlier action to warn students about the 2007 shooting that left 33 dead, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. This decision marks the first time that fines associated with the Clery Act have been eliminated. In 2007, Virginia Tech took two hours to send a campus-wide email warning that a shooting had occurred on campus, according to The Chronicle. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the Virginia state attorney general, said in a statement that two hours was an appropriate amount of time for the university to respond given the "unforeseen and unprecedented" nature of the shooting, The Chronicle reported.
According to a recently published study of professorialpay at public universities in 28 countries, Canadian professors on average have the relative highest purchasing power based off their salaries, while professors from Armenia have the lowest, according to The New York Times. Chinese professors have the lowest purchasing power for those that have been newly hired at $259 a month, according to The Times. The study also compared professors' earnings relative to their nations' per capita gross domestic product. Ethiopian professors make 23 times the per capita GDP, showing that "academics are very highly valued," according to The Times. Academics in countries such as Germany and China, where professorial salaries are relatively low, are often forced to take on additional jobs or switch schools frequently, according to The Times.
