March 13th, 2014
Ronald McDimesworth

One hell of an all-American headline.

February 26th, 2014
Nobody knows why the state of Illinois doesn’t pull the plug on …

… Chicago State University. Corrupt even by Illinois standards. An almost non-existent graduation rate. Ruled by one greedy hack after another. Frauds in high places. The functional equivalent of North Korea.

And now… (drum roll)…

A Cook County jury has awarded a former Chicago State University employee $2.5 million in damages and back pay after deciding he was fired in retaliation for reporting alleged misconduct by the university president and other top officials, an amount that a judge could further increase at a hearing next month.

… The lawsuit by former Chicago State senior legal counsel James Crowley alleged that he was fired in February 2010 after he refused to withhold documents about university President Wayne Watson’s employment that were requested by a faculty member under the state’s public records law. Crowley also claimed that he was retaliated against after reporting questionable contracts to the Attorney General’s office.

So what’ll it take to shut the place down?

Students are leaving in droves.

Is it possible Illinois will keep the shake-down operation going even without students???

January 8th, 2014
“ILLITERATES IN BIG TIME COLLEGE SPORTS”

Headline of the day.

(Don’t just read the transcript; watch the video.)

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

A related article, and an expression of Okie pride:

[Y]ou don’t have to be literate to play and graduate from OSU.

December 24th, 2013
Headline of the Day

MISSOURI PROFESSOR PART OF MAJOR HUMAN FOSSIL FIND

November 19th, 2013
He made Dean’s List at William and Mary…

… in Spring 2013; he helped his father with his gubernatorial campaign in 2009. But if reports are correct, something went very wrong: Gus Deeds apparently stabbed his father, Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, and then shot himself to death.

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

UPDATE:

[Gus] Deeds, who had withdrawn last month as a student at the College of William and Mary, underwent a mental health evaluation on Monday at a local hospital performed under an emergency custody order, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. But the son was released from Bath County Community Hospital because no psychiatric beds were available across a wide area of western Virginia, the paper reported.

November 14th, 2013
After this, UD PROMISES NEVER to say Canada is boring.

Muff diving vers le nord.

The mayor’s exact statement.

Background.

November 5th, 2013
“Rand Paul Faces Yet Another Plagiarism Accusation; Will Probably Have to Start Dueling”

Headline of the day.

November 3rd, 2013
Statutory…

offense.

October 27th, 2013
Armed Person Reported at Indiana…

University Bloomington. Odd hour and day for a sighting, a lockdown. Five, six, on a Sunday morning.

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

Students fighting; one had a knife and used it. Non-lethally.

October 8th, 2013
Gunshots at Princeton.

This story just appeared on the news; it’s much too soon to know what’s going on. I’ll follow it.

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

It seems to be over, with no gunshots having been fired. Ezra Klein was giving a lecture at the time; everyone was evacuated to the basement of the building.

June 4th, 2013
If you can come up with a better pun headline than this one…

… be my guest. I’ve spent most of the day admiring it.

May 23rd, 2013
You’re as young as you…

deal.

May 21st, 2013
‘”We will pray for this man as we pray for so many others who are at their wits’ end,” he said.’

Notre Dame’s rector says exactly the right thing in the wake of Dominique Venner, a far-right activist protesting France’s legalization of same-sex marriage, having stuck a gun down his throat and fired in front of schoolchildren visiting the cathedral. It takes a special sort of madman to make a bloody spectacle of himself in a church full of children.

May 21st, 2013
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LOST MONEY
SELLING BEER TO COLLEGE KIDS

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

UD thanks Dave.

May 9th, 2013
“The College Board and ETS have made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel the May 2013 administration of the SAT and SAT Subject Tests at all test centers in the Republic of Korea.”

That’s all test centers in the entire Republic of Korea. Pretty amazing country – cheaters, plagiarists, as far as the eye can see. UD has covered endemic plagiarism there; now it looks as though charging people lots of money for getting SAT questions in advance is also pretty close to endemic. Details, if you can stomach them, here.

Speaking of cheaters, the outfit that sued your blogger and hundreds of others lo these many years ago (refresh your memory here – scroll down) is of course no longer an outfit, having been eviscerated by this country’s legal system. In case you thought there was no more pain our courts could inflict on these trolls, get a load of this happy news.

Keep it coming.

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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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