… but there’s nothing all that funny about a system that nurtures and protects high-born degenerates. Something to think about as we enjoy the cheap thrill of the queen of England’s son in handcuffs.
… but there’s nothing all that funny about a system that nurtures and protects high-born degenerates. Something to think about as we enjoy the cheap thrill of the queen of England’s son in handcuffs.
She hasn’t written about it because she hasn’t been able to control her emotions.
It is now coming to an end.
How did it ever start?
… I am totally shocked by my decade of theft of your dues … I am at a loss for words…. But the important thing is I’m an old lady now and you wouldn’t send an old lady to jail, would you?
You take your eye off of it for awhile and think Hm maybe all the prison and lawsuits and bad publicity shamed it into better behavior…
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But nah.
[Save Our States] accuses the health system of prioritizing luxury spending and executive compensation while patient safety problems persist…. [T]he health system paid its CEO and a department chair over $4 million each in annual compensation.
… but Lori Zeno stole most of its city, state, and federal money so she could rent a penthouse, tool around in a Mercedes, and take luxury trips to Bali.
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You MUST know, after reading this blog for awhile, that this sort of behavior is absolutely standard.
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The only question UD keeps having in such cases is about discovery. Clearly people around her must have known for some time (she led the outfit for years) that she was dirty. Zeno herself explained to the court that she should be handled very gently by them because she’s been way off her rocker for years. Did anyone notice that?
Or is the real problem the very banality of stealing everything? Like, what’s the big deal. Everyone does it.
How can YOU hire the sort of university president who can make this happen for YOU? That is the question American universities want answered.
Track down Betsy Cantwell, whose last name is an ironic reversal on her can-do approach to public service. This is a woman who, when president of Utah State University, bought herself a circa $20,000 “climate-controlled golf cart.” It CAN be done!
Betsy might go to jail because she broke a bunch of state laws, but meanwhile she got out of USU PRONTO when things started getting hot for her (her term there lasted one year) and can now be found hiding in plain sight at notorious Washington State University, whose somewhat malsain operations this blog has followed for years. WSU clearly felt an immediate affinity with ol’ Bets and wrote up this uh selective account of her uh operations at USU.
They forgot to mention not only the golf cart (and the bidet for her office) but the possibly criminal malfeasance.
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Now you’d think WSU would be all in a tizzy – their shiny new prez might soon be hauled in front of a congressional panel and then maybe a judge – but take a look at this and ask yourself: Would Mike Leach find uncomfortable questions from government representatives embarrassing? UD knows WSU and Betsy Cantwell will brazen this out beautifully.
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Crap schools are crappy for a reason. You need to start with trustees that are corrupt and absolutely bewilderingly stupid. And way into football. Current WSU athletics debt is around a quarter billion dollars. Betsy’s the frugal money manager.
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’Items Cantwell purchased have been inventoried, [and one person handling the scandal notes that] the school could consider selling them off to make up the funds.
But “Removing a bidet will cost money.”’
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ONE USED BIDET LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WHO WISHES TO START THE BIDDING
The only sensible way to look at this is if these guys weren’t helping international criminals steal money they’d be senior officers in the German High Command. Let them have their fun.
… a creation of satirist Daniel Greenberg in his novel Tech Transfer, lives again as story after story lately features massive theft of federal/state tax dollars.
The Louvre, the Prado, and (I can attest) the Uffizi are all an ordeal, “like the Metro at rush hour,” and everyone’s too greedy to do anything about it.
Prosecutors said he included a fraudulent invoice in his [loan] application, which said he had been paid more than $800 for a “Three layer cake — 80’s Themed – Orange, Blue, Black and White — Tie dye color.”
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Guy was soft on crime too. His bribery deal with funeral home directors was totally dependent on dead victims.
… AND it’s Texas A&M!
Anyone paying attention to that intellectual έρημος CANNOT be surprised that their BOT has now begun banning long stretches of Plato from classrooms because … uh… gender?
”What kind of university” does this, asks the miscreant who tried to teach a Dialogue or two.
The kind of university that tells the miscreant he either dumps transy P. pronto or he can teach Ethics and Engineering instead! UD is not making this up.
The local AAUP says
“A research university that censors Plato abandons its obligation to truth, inquiry, and the public trust — and should not be regarded as a serious institution of higher learning.”
Who da fuck ever regarded A&M as a serious anything? Have you read UD’s years of posts about that football-addled joke?
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Reminds UD of Benedictine College in Kansas, where
Sometimes, people here quietly admit, it goes too far. Like the students who loudly proclaim how often they go to Mass, or the young man who quit his classics course because he refused to read the works of ancient Greek pagans.
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UPDATE: Great title! Texas Plato Massacre
Bad boy Lawrence Krauss was forced, back in 2018, to retire from Arizona State; you’d think ASU would know by now that you take down bad girl Elisa New’s university page before announcing she’s been dumped too. But there she is, bright and shiny, eager to gentle you with poetry…
A relentless scammer, he abused expense accounts, engineered inside deals and demonstrated a remarkable knack for separating seemingly sophisticated investors and businessmen from their money. He started small, testing his tactics and seeing what he could get away with. His early successes laid the foundation for more ambitious ploys down the road… He had already shown himself capable of betraying friends and patrons who trusted him, but now he had advanced from the flagrant abuse of expense accounts to apparently absconding with hundreds of thousands of dollars… Epstein had lured investors in, used their money to book big profits and then refused to return their funds…
And there’s his BFF:
The year after meeting Epstein, [Alan] Dershowitz wrote an opinion piece for The Los Angeles Times arguing that the age of sexual consent should be lowered to 15. Epstein seemed to see the potential of nurturing a relationship with the prominent lawyer. [LOL]… Keeping Dershowitz happy proved prescient. He would become one of Epstein’s highest-profile and longest-serving defenders.
For mercenary reasons, Harvard prof Elisa New waxed lyrical about child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — until the world of decent people came crashing down on her and she couldn’t do it anymore. What an inspiring guide to the delicate art of poetry.
Don’t NOBODY do hazing like Texas. Plus nobody down there gives a shit.
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