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On March 2, Michael J. D'Andrea, professor of counselor education at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus, received a letter informing him that "effective immediately upon your receipt of this letter, you are being reassigned to work at home with pay while the University of Hawaii ... addresses several issues concerning your alleged intimidating, hostile and bullying behavior." D'Andrea was also instructed not talk with colleagues at the College of Education, not to meet with students nor contact them by phone. Sending anyone at the college an e-mail message was also restricted. Citing that administrators may prevent him from teaching, visiting his office or being physically on campus, D'Andrea sued the university for infringing his rights of speech. Prior to a hearing in April, the university offered to lift the restrictions on speech. D'Andrea says he has never intimidated, bullied, or threatened anyone and that the university is punishing him for his peace and social-justice advocacy. Over the past 7 years, the professor has filed more than 60 grievances against university administrators and policies, complaining about racism and sexism in the college, discrimination against gays and lesbians, the high crime rate on the campus, a proposal to build a Navy research center, rising tuition, unsafe dormitory rooms, lack of accommodations for the disabled and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to D'Andrea, he has attempted to work within the university's grievance process but "The university has a 100-percent record of rejecting my requests for meetings." Individuals and organizations have written to Hawaii's Board of Regents, calling for D'Andrea's return to campus and questions of due process have been raised by the American Association of University Professors. However, although some may extrapolate a connection between the court fight and the university's grievance process, lawyers are careful to draw a line between the two.

Marilee Jones's career had been a remarkable success. She joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) admissions office in 1979, landing a job in Cambridge at a time when boys ruled the sandbox of the admissions profession. Her job was to help MIT recruit more women, who then made up less than one-fifth of the institute's students. She became MIT's admissions dean in 1997 and emerged as an outspoken defender of students' well-being, a dean who was more likely to talk about the looks on the faces of anxious applicants than about MIT's yield rate. Jones won fans for her frank talks at admissions conferences and high schools. Late last month, Jones, 55, resigned as dean of admissions at the MIT after admitting that she had falsified her resume. In a statement on the institute's Web site, Jones said she had misrepresented her academic degrees when she first applied for a job at MIT 28 years ago and "did not have the courage to correct her resume when she applied for her current job or at any time since." Nobody in academe condones Jones's deceit. However, some of her longtime admirers worry that her message will lose its resonance in the aftermath of her resignation.

This year faculty salaries outpaced inflation for the first time in three years, but the American Association of University Professors is still warning of growing financial inequalities within higher education. "One year cannot reverse discouraging trends that have been developing over decades," writes Saranna R. Thornton, a professor of economics at Hampden-Sydney College and author of this year's edition of the annual AAUP report. This article discusses the inequalities and gaps in salaries that exist between professors of different disciplines as well as between football coaches and their full-time faculty counterparts.

Princeton University has expanded a package of family-friendly benefits for graduate students that is designed to encourage more women to pursue careers in higher education. Joan S. Girgus, special assistant on diversity to the dean of the faculty, states that the university tried to think more comprehensively about what was needed. In an effort to provide a continuum of support for graduate students who are new parents, the university will offer three months of paid leave from research and teaching to new birth mothers. Doctoral students who become parents, including those who adopt, may also apply for need-based childcare grants, subsidized back-up care, and care-related travel funds. In addition, they can participate in a new mortgage program intended to lower the cost of buying a home, and they will be eligible for free counseling on how best to navigate work-life collisions and take advantage of the benefits the university offers. Both female and male graduate students say they have benefited from the policy, which has "raised awareness of the issues" all across the campus.

According to a report released by the National Academies' National Research Council, the U.S. Department of Education needs a high-ranking official to oversee its efforts to expand Americans' proficiency in foreign languages and knowledge of international affairs. The report was prepared by a committee convened to review the "adequacy and effectiveness" of language and foreign-affairs programs, which are supported under two federal laws--Title VI of the Higher Education Act and the Fulbright-Hays Act. The committee found that the Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs directly support the study of foreign languages and international affairs, and encourage universities to expand those efforts. However, the committee could not find enough reliable assessment data to determine exactly how effective the programs were and how well participants were learning. Even more seriously, financial support for both programs has failed to keep up with the accelerating pace of the mission they are expected to fulfill. But committee members agree that despite uneven progress, there has been an irreversible sea change in the way foreign language education is viewed.