Administrators

Susan Hockfield announced Thursday that she plans to step down as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The institute is now moving forward on a new set of ambitious goals, and I have concluded that the powerful momentum we have built makes this an opportune moment for a leadership transition," she wrote in an e-mail sent around the campus. Hockfield has been president since 2004.

Michael Reilly, who heads a council of Washington State's six public university presidents, was named Wednesday as the new executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. In his current role, Reilly represents the interests of the six universities before state leaders. He previously served in admissions and student affairs roles at California's Humboldt State University; Central Washington, Washington State and Seattle Universities in Washington; and Iowa State University. At AACRAO, where he'll begin work June 1, Reilly will succeed Jerry Sullivan.

The Los Angeles Community College District and the local district attorney are investigating spending by the director of a foundation that provides scholarships to needy students at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, The Los Angeles Times reported. Rhea Chung's expenses included more than $9,000 on golf outings, spending of $2,300 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a $1,500 monthly car allowance. Chung, who has been placed on leave, told the Times that the spending was an appropriate way to provide access to potential donors.

Johnson & Wales University has agreed to triple its annual payment to Providence (from $309,000 to at least $958,000), the Associated Press reported. Providence officials have been pushing local colleges -- especially Brown University -- to up their payments in lieu of taxes, setting off a debate over what the appropriate level of such payments should be.

About 85 students at George Washington University are suffering from norovirus, which typically leads to several uncomfortable days, but is not life-threatening, The Washington Post reported. Students with norovirus tend to experience diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach cramps. Close quarters in which college students tend to live make it easy for the norovirus to spread. In New Jersey, officials at Princeton and Rider Universities report that outbreaks on their campuses last week appear to be subsiding. At Huntington University, in Indiana, officials are dealing with an outbreak of head lice affecting students in four dormitories, The Journal Gazette reported. Officials believe that the source of the list is a group of students who were on a trip to India in January.

Heather Munroe-Blum, principal (president equivalent) of McGill University, will be leaving her position -- among the most prominent in Canadian academe -- next year, The Montreal Gazette reported. McGill's research programs and fund-raising capabilities have grown substantially during Munroe-Blum's tenure, which started in 2003. The university faced employee strikes and student protests in the last year, but Munroe-Blum said that those incidents had not led to her decision. She said she decided some time ago to serve two terms, which she is doing.