Thirty-four colleges underpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Friday. Nearly 20 percent of universities also broke chief executive compensation rules for nonprofit institutions. According to an IRS audit, the unnamed colleges avoided nearly $90 million in unpaid additional taxes. These expenses funded perks executive perks, including travel tours, housekeeping services and catering. The report cited the colleges' spending money on benefits indirectly related to their academic missions. Nearly 20 percent of private universities failed to appropriately compare the salaries they awarded to their top officials to peer institutions. These tax problems come amidst concerns that college presidents are overpaid and universities overspend on expenses unrelated to their academic missions, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
A fraternity at the University of California, Irvine apologized for a video that showed some of its brothers in blackface, The Huffington Post reported Friday. The video, in which four brothers danced to "Suit and Tie," was removed from YouTube by the fraternity but has since been re-posted by another user. Lambda Theta Delta fraternity posted an apology on its Facebook page on Wednesday, calling its brothers' actions "offensive" and "insensitive." Some student organizations, including the Asian Pacific Student Association and UC Irvine's student government, denounced the video as unrepresentative of the student body. Thomas Parham, UC Irvine's chancellor for student affairs, said that his department is investigating the video.
Yale University will begin to offer sex reassignment surgeries under its student insurance plan, the Yale Daily News reported Friday. The university follows Harvard University, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania as the fourth Ivy League school to offer coverage. The health plan will cover costs for patients approved on an individual basis, usually following mental health assessments and hormonal therapy. Advocates for the procedure say that the university's coverage will attract applicants who care about social change. Yale's insurance plan for faculty, staff and unionized workers already covers these procedures. Dartmouth is currently considering expanding its coverage for sex reassignment surgeries as well, and Dartmouth's insurance plan offers coverage for some procedures, including breast augmentation and mastectomy. Sex reassignment surgeries currently cost between $15,000 and $20,000.
