The Marriage Advantage

INSIDEHIGHERED.COM, Oct. 20 — In a news item entitled “Want to Get Ahead? Get Hitched,” Inside Higher Ed reported that married men perform better than their single counterparts when it comes to post-graduate success.

Joseph Price, a graduate student in economics at Cornell University, last year released a study showing that married doctoral students are more likely to obtain Ph.D. degrees. Price subsequently reviewed his data and found a similar “marriage advantage” in terms of publishing academic articles and landing tenure-track positions.

The study of 11,000 graduate students over a 20-year period found that married male students are 4% more likely to publish articles while in graduate school and are 8.4% more likely to obtain a tenure-track job within six months of graduating than single men.

Price, a married father of three whose wife is currently pregnant, told Inside Higher Education that better time management skills might be the reason for the disparity.

“For me,” said Price, “the biggest thing is that, at 3 p.m., I’m crunching hard because I need to get home at 6.”

BC Wants ‘Balance’

THE BOSTON GLOBE, Oct. 17 — Boston College is strengthening its commitment to uphold the university’s Catholic identity.

BC’s administrators have adopted new rules allowing them to reject student-recruited speakers whose viewpoints conflict with the school’s Catholic and Jesuit identity if another speaker is not invited to balance discussion by offering Catholic perspectives.

Under the policy, administrators will review student-sponsored speaker presentations and may cancel events if organizers have failed to include Catholic viewpoints.

According to the Globe, the policy was enacted in response to a student-sponsored panel discussion at Boston College that did not include pro-life viewpoints.

“The university is saying that it has the right to request that a balanced perspective be presented on fundamental issues of Church teachings,” said Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn. “The goal is not to censor or cancel an event, but to ensure a balanced perspective on critical issues, such as abortion.”

French Connection

THE SACRAMENTO BEE, Oct. 23 — The food should be great, but it won’t be all fun for students who travel to Europe as part of the University of Sacramento’s new master’s program in management. 

The program will include a two-week stay in Paris, where students will study European perspectives on management issues.

University of Sacramento’s Barry Sugarman, vice president of the Legionaries of Christ-run school, told the Bee that the management course, which starts in January, will emphasize ethical issues as well as business skills.

“Long-term corporate performance demands ethical performance,” Sugarman said, echoing sentiments he earlier expressed in the Register (“New Approvals and Programs for School,” Oct. 22-28). “Where is Enron now? What about Tyco?”

Benedict Visits Lateran U

REUTERS, Oct. 21 — Speaking at the start of the new academic year at Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University, Pope Benedict XVI warned against the pursuit of intellectual knowledge without a moral underpinning.

In his remarks, the Holy Father alluded to the story of Icarus, the mythical Greek character who ignored his father’s warning and flew to close to the sun, melting his wings and crashing to his doom.

“Letting yourself be seduced by discovery without paying attention to the criteria of a deeper vision,” Benedict told Lateran students and faculty, “could lead to the drama the myth speaks of.”