I’ve updated the column on the right of this page which lists reactions from the blogosphere to University Diaries. Out with the old praise, in with the new.

UD’s grateful for all of these generous words.

She’s also grateful, as ever, to this blog’s webmistress, UD‘s niece, Carolyn. Carolyn did the technical work.

[The commissioner of the Big Ten conference] warned of the risks involved in reducing [athletics] spending. Doing so is likely to raise the ire of donors, university trustees and members of the public. “It is a contact sport,” Delany said. “I’ve found it much easier to generate revenue than to cut costs. I’m being honest with you.”

And that’s how you make the world safe for Bobby Lowder.

The Stanford Daily:

The Internet revolution has created a new outlet for college students to encounter their professors outside of the usual academic setting: blogs. Stanford professors in many departments have taken up blogging about their academic expertise.

“I want to provide a little more information about economic issues than we [encounter] in the classroom or readings,” said economics Prof. John Taylor, who authors the blog “Economics One.” “I also want to share some of what we do in introductory economics at Stanford with a broader audience.”

Stanford professors from a myriad of academic disciplines have, over the years, turned their attention to blogging as a way to not only connect with students through technology, but also to convey much of their research, theories and overall thoughts to the world…

A University of Nevada Reno student sees what his professor’s capable of, and promises to behave.

San Francisco Chronicle:

… This year, UC Berkeley’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics – whose football team is in the Bowl Subdivision – is projected to run a deficit of nearly $6 million, rising to $6.4 million next year.

To make ends meet, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau expects to lend the athletes more than $12 million.

… The last time the athletes ran up a multiyear debt – owing the university $31.4 million by 2007 – the bill was forgiven…

[A] group of [Berkeley] faculty members who have dubbed themselves a Sports Grinch Club objects to the use of any university funds being spent on intercollegiate athletics.

“We ought to stop subsidizing this program,” said Michael O’Hare, a professor at Cal’s Goldman School of Public Policy. He and others say the loss to the school far outweighs any benefit because elite athletes generally have lower graduation rates and receive unfair benefits compared with regular students.

He said the Faculty Senate – the voice of tenured instructors in university governance – will consider a nonbinding resolution at its Nov. 5 meeting to end the subsidies.

O’Hare called “deeply depressing” the Knight Commission’s new report, in which university presidents acknowledge that they have little control over the escalating costs of their football programs.

[A] Cal spokesman … said, “There’s a reason that 10,000 students come to every home football game.

“They’re not just at Berkeley to attend class. They come to be part of a community.” …

And you know… you just know… with Berkeley’s notorious difficulty getting people to apply to that school, let alone decide to come, that without heavily funded athletics, the campus would have to shut down.

Arizona State University police say a graduate student fatally shot himself in a professor’s office.

ASU police commander James Hardina says the shooting occurred about 11:40 a.m. Monday.

Police say the student was apparently talking with a professor when he pulled out a gun and shot himself once on ASU’s main campus in Tempe.

The name of the student has not been released.

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Update: A little more information, from the Arizona Republic:

… The student apparently walked into the professor’s office [in the Architecture building], pulled out a gun and shot himself without warning… The student apparently had battled depression for most of his life… He was a third-year grad student [in architecture] on track to graduate. He had been a student of the professor’s, but [a police spokesman] said he was unsure if he was currently in the professor’s class.

Most suicides go off and do it someplace solitary.

Some, like this one, seem to seek out someone they care about or hate or whatever and do it in front of them.

A friend of mine in college — her father called her mother on the phone from work one morning, said a few words to her (the two of them were estranged) and then, into the phone, so the mother could hear it loud and clear, shot himself to death.

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Another Update: Details, from ASU’s newspaper:

A male graduate student committed suicide in front of a professor at around 11:40 a.m. Monday in the College of Design South building on the Tempe campus.

David Solnick, a 59-year-old student in the graphic design program, was talking with Associate Professor Mookesh Patel inside Patel’s office when the student pulled out a handgun and shot himself, ASU Police spokesman Cmdr. Jim Hardina said.

Solnick died instantly, police said, and he never posed a … danger to anyone around him.

“At this point, we have the weapon, the student is deceased and there is no threat to the campus,” Hardina said about 20 minutes after the incident was reported.

Hardina said the department will not release details of the conversation between Solnick and Patel until the investigation is complete.

Patel was unavailable for comment.

Solnick was preparing to graduate in December, according to his personal blog. He also received his bachelor’s degree from ASU.

According to the blog, he had worked as a visual designer since the 1980s in the areas of ceramics, print and paint and was working on a series of pictures of two of his friends…

Jane Mendillo, chief executive of the Harvard Management Co., eluded to the sale of some of Harvard’s private equity investments in Harvard University’s financial report for fiscal 2009, which was released earlier this month.

Forbes

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Oh poo. They fixed it.

Written and conceived by Samuel Beckett, this one act for two suits captures its moment in time with the concision and enigma of great art. Scroll down to video.

UD‘s got the impression that many American university students now routinely check Rate My Professors before taking a course. Despite RMP‘s obvious limitations, students really have to.

Why? Because unwise tenure decisions at some universities have wedged into place professors like this one.

Recently disciplined by the Ohio State University Office of Human Resources, the professor (this is his self-published book) has generated many student complaints about his teaching.

Here is a recent newspaper article about him.

The Korean guy who inspired this awful stamp

has been convicted of scientific fraud.

[A] senior colleague at his laboratory in Seoul,
South Korea claimed Dr Hwang had admitted
to fabricating key parts of a study that purported
to show the creation of the first human master
cells tailor-made to match individual patients…

A student writes a column in the University of Minnesota paper asking her fellow students to drink responsibly.

… The University of Minnesota doesn’t offer classes on how to be a decent human being because it’s assumed you’re pretty solid on that by now. Vandalism that occurs in neighborhoods around campus is not the work of University students alone , but the blurred lines of affiliation are not doing our school any favors. You never know, the woman you expose yourself to in the street may write legislation for community or University funding…

Yes. Good point.

But then why, in the same article that quotes this university scientist, is he described as having “published articles in nearly 500 scientific journals”?

Note: Not having published 500 scientific articles, which already strains credulity. Having published articles in 500 different journals.

For $1, … computer design and graphics students allowed Purdue students, faculty and staff 30 seconds to take whacks at computer hardware set up on the Engineering Mall.

Journal and Courier

… what’s a university to do?

Central Florida wrestles with this.

Details here.

… it’s a very bad idea to refuse to do so. It only makes people suspect you’ve been misbehaving. Take the case of Australia’s University of Newcastle.

The University of Newcastle has refused to reveal details of how much it is paying senior executives in bonuses and is ignoring a recommendation from the NSW Ombudsman who says there are no grounds for withholding the information.

In his latest report, the Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, reveals the university refused to release the information sought under a freedom of information request even though it had legal advice it had few grounds to do so.

”Our investigation found that, as part of their internal review, the university had obtained legal advice that most of the FOI exemptions they relied on would be likely to be overturned by the Administrative Decisions Tribunal or questioned by us if reviewed,” he said. ”Despite this, they continued to maintain that the documents were exempt.”

… In an effort to get the information, the Ombudsman wrote to the Department of Premier and Cabinet proposing a change to the reporting regulations but had received no response despite a recommendation of an upper house inquiry into university governance this year that found “the disclosure of this information is in the public interest” .

Last year the Ombudsman again criticised some universities for ”contracting out” of disclosure requirements by including confidentiality clauses in salary packages paid to vice-chancellors to make disclosure of the details a breach of the contract.

After that, all universities apart from the University of NSW disclosed details…

And why doesn’t the University of New South Wales disclose?