Watching the Ivies: 1/13
BROWN: Brown University’s highest paid employee, vice president and chief investment officer Cynthia Frost, will retire at the end of the school year in order to help her mother after her father’s death, according to the Brown Daily Herald. Frost is the only person to have held Brown’s CIO position, and during her 12 years at the University, she was responsible for the endowment’s growth from $1.4 to $2.5 billion.
COLUMBIA: A new dining plan will be introduced for the spring semester at Columbia University. It will include $50 in “Flex” dollars so that students are able to purchase food off-campus when dining halls are closed during school breaks. According to the Columbia Daily Spectator, the idea behind the plan was to provide options for those students on financial aid who lacked on-campus food options during academic breaks.
CORNELL: After the hospitalization of two fraternity pledges following a hazing incident last October, Cornell University has derecognized the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity. University officials noted that the hazing involved “sexually humiliating” and “mentally scarring” activities, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.
HARVARD: While the last-minute Congressional deal forestalled the fiscal cliff, Harvard University is bracing itself for possible federal funding cuts. By March 1, Congress must reach a deal which will decide to what extent Harvard, and universities and colleges around the country, will have to deal with spending cuts in federal funding for research, The Crimson reported.
PENN: The Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual report placed the University of Pennsylvania’s President Amy Gutmann as the third-highest-paid president in the Ivy League. With a salary of $1,462,742 in 2010, Gutmann is the 12th-highest-paid university president in the US, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.
PRINCETON: There have been no violations of Princeton University’s recently installed ban preventing freshmen from joining Greek organizations. Students attribute the success of the policy to the severity of the punishment if violated — freshmen who are caught attempting to participate in Greek life, or upperclassmen who assist them in this process, are immediately subject to a one-year suspension from the university, according to The Daily Princetonian.
YALE: John Darnell resigned his post as chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and submitted to a one-year suspension after violating Yale University policy. Darnell conducted an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student under his direct supervision and later participated in her evaluation for tenure, both violations of the school’s policy, according to the Yale Daily News.