Women lead top campuses in Canada.

After chiding fellow Canadians for being "the great frozen political north for women" in choosing women as leaders of political parties in Canada, columnist Jeffery Simpson of the Toronto Globe and Mail said that at least they got it right in education. Women led half of the nation's top universities--as measured by size, of course--and have taken over as the clear majority of undergraduate students.

"Here's to the feminization of universities," toasted the headline of his column, in which he called them "an exceedingly impressive group." Why? "Universities are notoriously complicated institutions to manage, let alone lead, so none of these women got their jobs through to-kenism," he wrote.

In fact, the women presidents got their jobs by being willing to move. All six came to their schools as outsiders, reinforcing how hard it is to get promoted within your own nest.

Of the six he mentioned, the first two are American-born. Four specialized in the hard sciences and engineering, while the other two came from anthropology and sociology/Women's Studies.

* Dr. Martha Piper was VP for research and external affairs at the University of Alberta before moving to the University of British Columbia, where she has been president for nine years. She started in rehabilitation medicine.

* Dr. Karen Hitchcock ran SUNY's Albany campus ...