In a case that sheds light on how bitter personal feuds can drive the actions of faculty members, a jury has ruled that an associate professor of sociology at Iowa State University brought false charges of gender discrimination against two colleagues he had viewed as obstacles to his gaining tenure.

The verdict, issued late last week, came in a lawsuit filed by the two other faculty members in an Iowa district court. The jury held that the associate professor, Daniel A. Krier, had...

Days after Virginia's attorney general ignited a controversy by telling public colleges and universities they had no authority to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, the state's governor issued an executive directive on Wednesday advising all state employees that employment discrimination is prohibited under state and federal law.

In a letter last week, the attorney general, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a Republican, advised the state's public universities and colleges that...

Eight Chronicle reporters and editors won awards on Wednesday from the Education Writers Association for articles published in 2009. The prizes recognized their work on two large projects, one on the life of adjunct professors and the other on the rise of Asian higher education at a time of retrenchment in the United States.

The latter project, "Asia Rising/America Falling," received first prize for a...