May 2nd, 2012
A UC San Diego Senior …

… 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.

April 30th, 2012
The Heartbreak of Evaluation

It’s that time of year.

———————–

UD thanks Wendy.

April 27th, 2012
Driving a Porsche While Asian

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.

April 18th, 2012
In the aftermath of a robbery near the campus of the University of Southern California…

… 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.

April 16th, 2012
Finally, a film about English PhDs.

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.

April 14th, 2012
Suing your university for $150 million is a surefire way…

… 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.

April 11th, 2012
Two International Students from China at the University of Southern California…

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

April 7th, 2012
University of Minnesota linebacker Gary Tinsley…

… 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.

March 2nd, 2012
Three Bowling Green University Students Killed, Two Others in …

… 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.

February 29th, 2012
Thus college does make stuck-ups of us all.

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

February 25th, 2012
“MIT Mystery”…

… 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.

February 25th, 2012
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…

… at America’s worst university.

February 22nd, 2012
Huguely Guilty of Second Degree Murder.

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

**************************

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.

**************************

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

**************************

Another Update: He has been sentenced to 26 years.

February 13th, 2012
Colby College’s Pig Problem.

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.
——————

UD thanks Andre.

February 8th, 2012
“Love could have died from an irregular heartbeat related to Adderall, a drug used to treat attention problems for which Love had a prescription.”

It’ll work as well as this chick’s Prozac defense worked.

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UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

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