By Rachel Adams. As I got ready to turn in my spring semester grades this week, I was depressed to realize I would have to fail two students who hadn’t finished the work in my classes. Read more...

By Colleen Flaherty. It’s a given: committees in administrative searches will check references beyond those included on a candidate’s résumé. The stakes of the appointment are high, so why rely only on the references the candidate has put forward, the thinking goes. Read more...

By Colleen Flaherty. Like many university leaders, Chancellor Rebecca Blank of the University of Wisconsin at Madison has had her ups and downs with the faculty. She butted heads with some professors in her support for a now-dead plan to make the university system into a more autonomous public authority, for example, but earned faculty praise when she defended professors against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s suggestion that faculty members might be shirking their teaching responsibilities. Read more...

By Elizabeth Redden. As part of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration announced last fall, the White House said that the Department of Homeland Security would propose changes to “expand and extend the use” of the optional practical training (OPT) program, which currently provides temporary work authorization to international students for 12 months postgraduation with an additional 17-month extension for students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Read more...