Lately, there have been some odd gifts to universities. This one, from Bose to MIT, is of interest to tax consultants.
UD has also been puzzling over this one, from an anonymous American to the University of Sydney. The American flew with the painting to Sydney; when there, he or she explained that the university must sell the painting and use the proceeds (probably around twenty million dollars) for scientific research.
Which is fine. Great. But why not stay home, sell the painting, and designate the money to go to Sydney? Why go to the trouble of putting the painting in Australia for a few weeks before it’s sold? I’m pretty sure it’s not being exhibited, or used for research purposes.
Odd.
The professors on the editorial board of the Journal condemn the word “pet” as offensive.
The Village Voice writers, at the end of their post, provide a list of alternative terms.
Among the several Facebook groups dedicated to the mad squirrels of the University of Florida is one titled UF SQUIRRELS ARE PLOTTING MY DEMISE.
… at George Washington University.
Conservative media figure Ann Coulter likened potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to a children’s birthday party entertainer in a speech on Wednesday night.
“I think Trump is a clown,” Coulter said during an appearance sponsored by Young America’s Foundation at George Washington University.
Alfred Adler, the Austrian psychoanalyst, died in Scotland (he’d been invited to lecture there) in 1937. His family traveled to Aberdeen for his funeral, but didn’t bring his ashes home.
The Honorary Consul of Austria for Scotland has, with great effort, tracked them down, and is having them brought back to Austria.
UD finds his explanation of Adler’s fate well worth pondering.
“In a sense he wasn’t lost because he was where he had always been, it’s just that no-one knew he was there.”
Archaeologists at the University of Wales follow the trail of Batty’s Travelling Menageries.
Bristol University’s new cow simulator.
Awkward. Quinnipiac Law School’s registrar (she’s also an academic dean there) has to stay home for six months onaccounta she committed major financial fraud and conspiracy and this is part of her sentence.
Finding no reason to remove this person from a position of responsibility, the university will somehow operate with an “away” registrar… I guess they’ll bundle all the grades and deliver them to her house. Students unhappy with their grades might want to pay her a visit, since altering legal documents is part of her M.O.
Students at UD’s alma mater study motorized sex toys.
In West Virginia, state Sen. Evan Jenkins said flights on discount airlines between Huntington, W. Va., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [pill mills] have been dubbed the “Oxycontin Express.”
… for so long on forming a government that university students there have begun stripping in protest.
The University of Georgia’s Brett Tennent-Brown hails from randy New Zealand – land of Big Cock Energy Drink – and prides himself on his penis. Dr Brett specializes in large animal medicine. He got a grant for the following proposal: “Better Understanding of Colitis.” But the main thing he does is talk and write about his penis.
In response to complaints about him, the Equal Opportunity Office has had to parse Brett’s penis. It has had to determine whether his unflagging mention of his favorite subject is harassing, or just really stupid and disgusting. It has determined that the behavior is not actionable – yet – but the dude better watch himself.
Meanwhile, UD wants to convey to one of the note-takers at the EOO that it’s penile, not penal, thermometer.
What’s up with Villanova, a Catholic institution? What’s up with its law school?
One of its recent grads is right out in front on the big insider trading scandal. Its last dean resigned for “medical reasons” (prostitutes). And now it turns out school administrators have been lying about entering GPA and LSAT scores for years.
‘Course, everybody lies.
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