University paid $2.3 million to run rarely used Blue Line
Apr. 8, 2016 When Lori Ingram, a nursing student at the University of Memphis, boards the Blue Line bus service she's usually greeted by a friendly driver and an empty shuttle. The 20-year-old student from South Korea rides the bus service a three days a week to take her from classes at the U of M's Park Avenue to the main campus, which would be a 30-minute walk. While the service is convenient for her, she has noticed how little it is used. "I feel like the only person on the bus almost all the time," Ingram said. "Sometimes I might see two or three other people on it." Read more...
The not-so-green project: $150,000 of student green fees spent to help billion-dollar corporation sell food
Sep. 9, 2015 The University of Memphis used student money designated for projects that push the campus to go green to build an outdoor dining area where Aramark, a multi-billion dollar food corporation, could sell food. The new dining pavilion, which stands between Manning Hall and the Administration Building, cost more than $150,000 to build. Every penny of it came from the Green Fee — the mandatory $10-a-semester charge all full-time students pay. This fee is supposed to “support projects and practices that make our campus more energy efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable.” Read more...
Violent sorority hazing haunts University, officials refuse to identify suspects
Sep. 9, 2015 After suffering insults, slaps to the face and being forced to answer to nicknames like “Fail,” 11 University of Memphis sorority pledges stood in line for one last humiliation. It was well past 9 p.m. when the tallest member of the Rho Gamma Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta grabbed the shortest pledge by the back of her hair, tilted the student’s head back and smacked her face with an open palm. The other Zetas watched and jeered as the tall women went down the line beating faces. During the attack, one pledge heard the crunch of her own nose breaking. The student was later taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital, where doctors treated her broken nose. Read more...
Unequal Pay: Little Hope for Closing Professor Gender Pay Gap at University of Memphis
The University of Memphis paid female full professors an average of 86 cents for every dollar a male professor made – or $15,830 less per year than the average of their male peers, according to an analysis of 2014 state salary data. That is less than the national average. Women full professors from institutions across the country earned 88 cents for every full dollar men made, according to 2011 data from the American Association of University Professors, the latest available from that group. The U of M’s gap appears to have grown in recent years for full professors. Memphis’s male full professors have seen their average salary increase by $10,000 since 2009, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s new interactive online tool. During that same time period, the average salary for women full professors has stayed about the same. Read more...
$2.6 million in parking tickets collected by the University of Memphis over 6 years
July 9, 2014
Parking services collects on average $440,000 a year in tickets, according to records spanning six years obtained by The Daily Helmsman. This amount is made up from a variety of citations ranging from $10 for an improperly displayed parking permit to $200 for those who block or park in a handicap spot. One of the most common tickets written is for parking “on the grass,” a $15 fine for when students park on the grounds between the Zach Curlin parking lots. But not all citations are handed out justly. Nearly two-thirds of all tickets brought before the Parking and Traffic Standing Committee were successfully appealed, during the last three years. Only 28 percent of ticket appeals were denied, and nearly 8 percent saw fines reduced or had the citations completely removed, pending some additional action from the defendant. Read more...
