Several major associations issued a new report Monday designed to help universities ensure that their research labs and other academic environments operate safely. Read more...

While many academic disciplines are experiencing a tight job market, faculty job openings in communication are increasing, according to an analysis from the National Communication Association. Read more...

Several civil liberties and academic freedom organizations have sent the U.S. Education Department a letter urging it to avoid decisions or policies that would punish colleges that do not ban Yik Yak, a social media tool (logo at right) that has been used on many campuses to post anonymous, hateful messages that are racist, sexist or homophobic. Read more...

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, an accreditor, last week released a new "vision" for management education. In a report the group identified five roles business schools are well positioned to fill, including being catalysts for innovation, co-creators of knowledge, hubs of lifelong learning, leaders on leadership and enablers of global prosperity. Read more...

The median base salary increase for professional-level administrative positions in higher education in 2015-16 was 2 percent, according to new data from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Read more...

An ongoing study conducted by Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit research organization, looked at the effect of performance-based funding policies in higher education across three states: Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee. The group released early results from the work over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association. Read more...

Whitman College, a liberal arts institution in Washington State, is named for Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, 19th-century Christian missionaries. But the college announced this week that its mascot will no longer be known as "the Missionary". Read more...

California Faculty Association, the faculty union for the California State University System, on Thursday postponed indefinitely its five-day strike planned to begin April 13, after negotiators for both parties reached a tentative salary agreement. Read more...

A survey of roughly 90,000 students, most of whom attend four-year colleges, found that 90 percent of respondents feel they do not have all the information necessary to pay back their student loans. Read more...

The department is soliciting public comments on a letter it plans to send to accreditors that will outline the circumstances under which they must notify federal officials of actions they take against a college. Read more...