Provost Peter Salovey’s newest experiment is not in his field of psychology. It’s in the classroom. It’s a Yale College seminar called Great Big Ideas, co-taught by Salovey and Adam Glick ’82, president of the Jack Parker Corporation, a Manhattan-based real estate developer. The interdisciplinary course — pegged as “a comprehensive introduction to the world’s »

Cornell’s endowment rose 17.2 percent in fiscal year 2011, according to preliminary figures announced by the university Wednesday. The increase marked the second straight year of growth for Cornell, according to a university press release, and the continued recovery of an endowment that plunged 26 percent in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Cornell’s »

Jill Abramson, managing editor for the New York Times and an English lecturer at Yale, will replace Bill Keller as the newspaper’s executive editor this fall, the Times announced Thursday. Abramson will be the first woman to hold the post. Keller will step down this summer after eight years at the helm of the Times »

Cornell’s chief investment officer has departed abruptly after just six months on the job, the Cornell Sun reported. Michael Abbott, who assumed his post in November 2010, stepped down on Sunday according to Cornell’s Vice President for University Communications Tommy Bruce. No reasons have yet been given for Abbott’s departure, Bruce told the Cornell Sun »

Rain helps the bluegrass grow, or so says Davenport College Dean Craig Harwood. Harwood, Provost Peter Salovey and the other members of their band, the Professors of Bluegrass, assembled in Davenport’s common room Saturday afternoon to jam on the bass, mandolin, banjo, fiddle and guitar. Harwood’s son, Asher, also made a guest appearance.