As it prepares to cash in on student drinking, the University of Minnesota reminds us that its preferred focus remains academics.

Iowa’s different.

… was swept up in a drug raid. Innocent of any charges, he was nonetheless held in a DEA cell for five days with no food or water; for two days, he was in total darkness.

The UCSD engineering student said he missed several midterm exams last week. Attorney Eugene Iredale said he hoped university officials would allow his client time to make up the missed school work.

I think UCSD will find this an acceptable excuse.

It’s that time of year.

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UD thanks Wendy.

The son of a disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai received three traffic tickets while driving a Porsche [costing around $80,000] in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Bo Guagua, son of the ousted Communist Party chief at the center of a widening corruption scandal, had earlier this week sought to downplay his allegedly lavish lifestyle as a student at Harvard University.

Harvard must be pissed. If they’re ever going to begin growing their endowment – currently an anemic 32 billion – it’s going to have to come from guys like Bo.

… in which two students were killed, there’s been another robbery of students. As the suspect fled, campus security officers wounded him, and he’s now in custody.

From a New York Times roundup of Tribeca Film Festival offerings:

Andrew Semans’s “Nancy, Please” conveys a similar turbulence lurking just under the civilized surface of everyday life. In the story, which traffics in the ghastly-funny misanthropy that is the specialty of Neil LaBute, a doctoral candidate and his angry former roommate engage in an escalating battle of wills when she refuses to return his copy of “Little Dorrit,” which contains the notes for his thesis. Observing this conflict, which begins to destroy his sanity, is like watching a slow-motion car accident. As much as you may loathe the characters, you can’t avert your eyes.

… to get UD‘s attention, and these three Saudis, two of them residents at the University of Ottawa’s med school, and the other lately tossed from said med school, are doing that. Background here.

And here’s an update:

A Saudi doctor who is suing the University of Ottawa for more than $55 million has lost his bid to overturn his dismissal from the Faculty of Medicine’s neurosurgery residency program.

In a decision earlier this month, a panel of Ontario Division Court judges rejected Dr. Waleed AlGaithy’s argument that the university’s Senate appeals committee violated procedural fairness and acted unreasonably when it upheld his dismissal from the residency program …

Plus, since they decided to sue for all those buckaroos, they can’t even do the Human Rights Tribunal thing!

In three decisions dated March 29, 2012, the Human Rights Tribunal dismissed the complaints from AlGaithy, Aba-Alkhail and Alsaigh, saying it was barred from proceeding because the three had commenced civil suits based on the same facts and allegations and were seeking similar remedies.

That violates provisions of Ontario’s Human Rights Code that prohibit the tribunal from hearing complaints that are the subject of civil proceedings, the decisions said.

… have been killed in what looks like an attempted carjacking near campus.

… has been found dead. His roommate “found him about 7:40 a.m. on the floor of their room in Roy Wilkins Hall.” It’s not yet known how he died.

… critical condition. They were driving to the airport, on their way to spring break, and were hit head-on by a person going the wrong way on the interstate.

… Scroll down to Colbert Report clip. Start at 2:41 and realize the emptiness behind your religious delusions.

… runs the headline, but the cause of death of MIT undergraduate Brian Anderson simply hasn’t yet been determined. No foul play, and no clear signs of suicide.

Here are two other possibilities:

Maybe Anderson had an underlying health problem – weak heart, epilepsy. He may have had a condition of which he himself was not aware.

The other possibility that has to be considered is alcohol/drugs.

… at America’s worst university.

Could go to prison for as many as forty years. My guess is that he’ll get twenty.

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Huguely’s father will testify as part of the sentencing deliberations. Given the gin-soaked existence he and his son both apparently led (Huguely wrote to Yeardley Love days before he killed her that “alcohol is ruining my life”), he may not be the best person to give this testimony. He will probably break down on the stand and speak of his mistakes and his feelings of guilt; but while this will certainly make him and his son look pathetic, it will not necessarily stir sympathy.

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Update: Huguely’s father did not testify. Good call.

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Another Update: He has been sentenced to 26 years.

First it was this guy, who kept evading capture. Now it’s these guys, who gathered at a student’s window to watch her having sex with one of their teammates. Just like the first pig, they got caught, and now they’re squealing.
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UD thanks Andre.