Goat's presence at fraternity party gives new meaning to 'Animal House'
Western Kentucky University (WKU) temporarily suspended the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity after a hazing incident involving allegations of sexual activities with a goat.
Responding to a noise complaint, the police found a goat in a storage closet while searching the house for alcohol, which is forbidden in fraternity houses at WKU. The spokesman for the police department said several students at the party informed police officers that the goat was intended for sex with students.
WKU prohibits hazing, and if the police prove that the goat was part of a hazing ritual, the fraternity will be permanently suspended. The goat was found standing in its own urine and feces, and when taken to a local humane society, was found to have a minor abrasion in its rectum from an unknown source. It was also severely dehydrated and slightly underweight.
One of the fraternity brothers, who claimed ownership of the goat, was charged with second-degree cruelty to animals.
Scientists denounce Bush At the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, some of the country's leading scientists denounced the Bush administration's attitudes towards science policy, alleging that the White House has been using science to enhance its political agenda. The meeting, held in St. Louis, was organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Some of its speakers included David Baltimore, president of the California Institute of Technology; Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley; and Susan Wood, a former assistant commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Wood resigned from her position several months ago to protest continued federal limitations on availability of the morning-after pill, an emergency contraceptive.
Baltimore, the recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, stated that the administration's attempts to expand the scope of its overall power has led to tensions between the scientific community and the administration. Other scientists also expressed concern over Bush's political encroachment of scientific policy and advised scientists to participate in an open discussion on the topic.
College Administrators enjoy relative pay increase
Median salaries of college administrators increased by 3.5 percent in 2005, according to the annual survey of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.
This increase beat the 2004 increase of 3.3 percent and marks the ninth consecutive year in which this statistic has grown more rapidly than the inflation rate.
The survey examined the salaries of 211 different administrative positions at 1,345 institutions, including doctoral, master's degree, bachelor's, specialized, and two-year institutions.
Results found that salary increases at private institutions were similar to or only slightly greater than those at public institutions.
However, for administrators in executive positions, those at private institutions experienced a 4.3 percent median rise in salary while those at public institutions received a 3.9 percent increase.
Of all chief positions, the leading executives at doctoral institutions earned the highest median salary of slightly less than $300,000, and those at two-year institutions made the least, at slightly more than $140,000. Administrators of medical centers earned the highest median salary: $350,000. Administrators of residential life earned the lowest, with a median salary of $37,000.
- compiled by Aaron Schumacher
