Starting and mid-career salaries after Duke

27 Jul 2010, Posted by Taylor Doherty in News, 0 Comments

Those long nights in the library just might pay off—Duke graduates are among the nation’s top earners, according to PayScale’s 2010 College Salary Report.

Duke graduates earn a starting salary of approximately  $55,000, and by the middle of their career take in around $117,000 annually. Although Duke is not ranked in the top 10 list of starting salaries, it is listed nine overall in the mid-career rankings. The study considered data of college grads from 999 different universities with 125 different majors, according to PayScale’s press release.

California Institute of Technology’s $69,900 starting salary and Harvey Mudd College’s $126,000 median mid-career salary led the nation’s universities.

But as a result of the recession, starting pay is down an average of 2.5 percent for all of the schools considered. At the eight Ivy League schools, starting pay decreased by five percent.

Top Starting Salaries (which, as PayScale notes, is made up of engineering and nursing schools):

• 1. California Institute of Technology ($69,900)
• 2. Loma Linda University ($69,100)
• 3. Harvey Mudd College ($68,900)
• 4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($68,300)
• 5. Felician College ($62,600)
• 6. Carnegie Mellon University ($62,400)
• 7. Molloy College ($62,300)
• 8. Polytechnic Institute of New York University ($62,100)
• 9. Colorado School of Mines ($61,600)
• 10. Worcester Polytechnic Institute ($60,900)

Mid-Career Rankings:

• 1. Harvey Mudd College ($126,000)
• 2. Princeton University and Dartmouth College ($123,000)
• 4. Harvard University ($121,000)
• 5. California Institute of Technology ($120,000)
• 6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Colgate University ($119,000)
• 9. Duke University ($117,000)
• 10. Bucknell University ($115,000)

DUPD Asst. Chief Graham to serve at UT Knoxville

16 Jul 2010, Posted by staff in Crime, News, 1 Comments

Assistant Chief Gloria Graham of the Duke University Police Department has been named chief of police for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Police Department, UT officials announced Friday.

Graham was hired to Duke in July 2007, and had previously worked at the University of Southern California and Indiana State University. She takes her new post at UT Knoxville Aug. 23 and replaces UT Knoxville’s former police chief August Washington, who left the department last July to serve as chief of police and assistant vice chancellor at Vanderbilt University.

Graham was reportedly selected from a pool of 81 candidates from across the country. She will be the first woman in UT Knoxville history to hold the position.

At Duke, Graham was responsible for police operations and external communication, among others. She also instituted a crime analysis program that aimed to lower reported crime rates.

Part of Graham’s two-and-a-half term at Duke, however, was plagued by officer attrition within DUPD. Her roots at DUPD are deeper than some, as she  worked with Aaron Graves, associate vice president for campus safety and security, who came to Duke in 2006, both at USC and at Duke.

Whether a replacement for Graham has been found is currently unclear. Please check back later for updates or follow us on Twitter @DukeChronicle for up-to-the-minute reports.

NCAA investigating UNC football for rules violations, sources say

16 Jul 2010, Posted by staff in News, Peer Institutions, 0 Comments

The NCAA was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this week to investigate members of an athletic team, UNC Athletic Director Dick Baddour said in a statement Thursday. He declined to specify which athletic team.

“I can acknowledge that representatives from the NCAA have been to Chapel Hill to speak with some of our student-athletes. However, they have instructed us to maintain the confidence of this review by not discussing it publicly,” Baddour said.

The Associated Press confirmed with an unnamed source that the athletes under investigation are on the University’s football team.

ESPN.com reported Thursday that the NCAA is probing the athletes about rule violations, asking about agents, gifts and benefits. Another unnamed source reportedly said the organization asked all projected NFL draft picks at the university to provide phone records to cross-check agents they had spoken with, and asked them about travel and rent payments.

UNC is expected to be ranked in the preseason Top 25 and vie for the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division title. The Tar Heels’ season opener is scheduled for Sept. 4 against LSU in Atlanta.

Durham County crime rate 6th highest in N.C.

15 Jul 2010, Posted by staff in Crime, Durham, News, 0 Comments

The overall North Carolina crime rate in 2009 was the lowest in 25 years, Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office announced Wednesday. Durham County’s crime rate was the 6th highest of the 92 North Carolina counties reported.

Reported crimes fell 8.8 percent  since last year across the state as violent crime fell 12.5 percent — the largest decline in a single year since the state started recording crime rates in 1973.

Durham County’s crime rate dropped almost 5.4 percent to 5,965 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2009. Ahead of Durham County were Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is located, Vance, Dare and Richmond Counties.

The violent crime rate in the county fell 14.7 percent and the property crime rate dropped more than 4 percent from a year ago.

The crime rate in the City of Durham fell 3 percent to 13,354. This figure includes murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts, but does not account for incidents of arson.

“There are also crimes that these numbers don’t reflect, such as some computer crimes and crimes connected with prescription drug abuse,” Cooper said in a statement Wednesday. “Law enforcement is constantly confronted with new crime trends and that’s why we must make sure that officers have access to the best in crime fighting technology, like DNA.”

Still, Durham’s high crime rate among other areas in North Carolina means that Durham Mayor Bill Bell needs “to have some conversations with the police chief,” Bell told The (Durham) Herald Sun Wednesday.

Figures for the City of Durham:

Durham’s neighbors saw declines in crime rates as well. Orange County’s overall crime rate fell more than 12.3 percent while Wake County’s dropped just 2.6 percent.

Durham County Crime map via the Durham Police Department Crime Mapper

UNC sees 15.5% tuition and fees increase

15 Jul 2010, Posted by staff in News, Peer Institutions, 0 Comments

Students attending public universities in North Carolina will see pricier tuition statements this Fall.

University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles announced Wednesday an average $444 of supplemental tuition increases for UNC system schools. The price hike will be in effect for the 2010-2011 academic year and comes after a $200 or 8 percent — whichever is less — increase for in-state students and $1,127 increase for out-of-state undergraduates approved last fall by state lawmakers.

The price hike marks an average 15.5 percent increase in tuition and fees for in-state students. The supplemental tuition increases range from $82 at UNC-Asheville to $750 at UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC School of the Arts. In total, in-state students will see a 24.5 percent increase and out-of-state students a 7.7 percent increase at UNC-CH. Five of the 16 UNC system schools also approved supplemental increases for the 2011-2012 academic year.

(See the full chart of UNC system tuition increases)

The UNC Board of Governors approved a measure that takes at least half of the revenue generated from initial tuition increases and 20 percent of revenue from supplemental increases go to need-based financial aid.

In February, Duke’s Board of Trustees approved a 3.9 percent increase in tuition, room and board for undergraduates for the 2010-2011 academic year.