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.
… He had a gift for French and his native Spanish and was honored as an outstanding professor in 2005 and the school’s company grade officer of the year for 2006.
Not bad for a kid who had to teach himself English.
“He pushed all of us,” his daughter, Air Force Lt. Emily Short said Thursday. “His word for us was ‘Don’t do it the hard way, the way I did.’”
Born in Caracas, Ambard never lost his admiration for his adopted land. When he leaned English, he sought perfection and spoke without an accent. He told his children to be grateful for the gifts that come with American citizenship.
Good writing doesn’t have to shout to be noticed.
That also covers my case: no criminal record and a college professor. PLUS I don’t go into jewelry stores and announce to the salesperson that I’m there to rob the place because I think it’s hilarious to say things like that. So: no criminal record, college professor, AND not an idiot.
Alexander Asandei seems to have trouble holding his tongue. You can already detect the problem here, in his woeful Rate My Professors pages.
But Asandei does not merely reserve his wit (he likes to call his students “dumb”) for the classroom. When asked the other day, in a jewelry store, if he’d like some help, he said no, I’m just here to rob the place.
So he got arrested and smiled his way through a mug shot and all.
Asandei complained about jail conditions and said people are way too sensitive these days. He feels everyone overreacted.
Well, he’s too sensitive to jail conditions.
The deputy chief operating officer of the Baltimore City schools (salary $135,200) explains that since the advertisement for his job didn’t say his university degrees had to be from accredited schools, his BA and MBA diploma mill degrees were just fine.
The school system agreed; but then the Baltimore Sun went sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong, and suddenly DCO Kevin Seawright has moved his ass clear out of the office. He’s taking his skills to private industry.
Remember. Public schools, fire departments, the military: None of these places gives a shit about diploma mill degrees. They don’t even know what they are. All of these organizations boast Kevin Seawrights.
Okay, take a gander.
This wildly popular painting shows Jesus holding the divinely inspired American Constitution and glaring at a group of bad people downstage, right. Near the bad people lie scattered papers — Supreme Court decisions vesting political authority in the Court rather than God.
One bad person reads The Origin of the Species.
Prints of the painting have been displayed and sold at the Brigham Young University bookstore. Until recently.
[An] adjunct art professor at BYU found the piece way too politically charged, and expressed concerns to the bookstore that it was a propaganda piece for the tea party.
Her main concern was not Christ holding the Constitution, because most Mormons believe God had some role in the American founding, she said. Instead, her biggest problem was with specific ideological details portrayed…
There’s the “good” student who is holding a copy of Cleon Skousen’s book, “The 5,000 Year Leap,” which has been heavily promoted by Glenn Beck and somewhat “adopted” by the Tea Party, she said.
Among the “bad” people is a professor holding a copy of “The Origin of Species,” by Charles Darwin.
“For a university to have that promoted as a bad thing, where half the biology department probably has you read that, just seemed really out of place for BYU,” she said…
The art professor – clearly one of the downstage people – is not the only person at BYU who wanted this painting out on its ass. Once she looked at it carefully and complained, other people looked.
Faculty and administrators and store staff are embarrassed. They’re embarrassed that their bookstore stocks and displays outrageous kitsch that – alter a few faces and book covers – could have come out of North Korea.
The store’s decision not to stock this print anymore has so enraged l’artiste that he has pulled all of his work from the store. So there.
… named in honor of erstwhile Yeshiva trustee Ira Rennert, intends to be, says its webpage, ‘a gateway to the “real world” of entrepreneurial business.’
It doesn’t get any realer than Rennert’s latest venture: A private museum on his Sagaponack estate (already the largest residence in the country).
Rennert has run into a problem, however:
[Rennert] has been instructed by [town] officials to cease construction of a museum on the 63-acre property. A village building instructor discovered Rennert’s plan to build when he noticed a concrete pumper truck on the property. “There has been no attempt to file a permit for any… type of structure,” the village official told the Post.
… and the basic moral imperative to call out corruption when you see it, all professors — all free thinkers — should be keeping a close eye on the University of Minnesota’s treatment of Professor Carl Elliott.
That institution spends most of its time, of course, deciding whether the common folk or just the elite can get drunk at its football stadium. But occasionally, around the edges, UM has academic issues.
Elliott, just awarded a Harvard fellowship to study corruption in clinical trials, has criticized the university’s management of an industry-sponsored drug trial. The university’s response has been, first, to refuse to investigate his claims and, second, to attempt to intimidate him.
UM has so far just done some throat-clearing on the intimidation front, but it will eventually start bellowing. University Diaries will follow along as it finds its voice.
The risk of getting leprosy from an armadillo is low.
… the aftermath of massive tornadoes through Tuscaloosa.
… a Columbia University English major, examines the complex psychology of writerly constraint in the face of scandals that demand a strong response. Gutterman wonders why, even having seen Inside Job, and gotten angry about the apparent involvement of Columbia University professors in conflicts of interest and non-disclosure, she took so long to write about it.
[T]he most insidious kind of censorship—the hardest to recognize, the hardest to combat—is self-censorship, the persistent imaginative failure that prevents us from even recognizing what we should be writing about.
In the Internet age, bravery in student journalism is not trailing a military unit on the Iraqi front lines. Rather, it is the willingness to address controversial issues as they surface, not once these points of view have become popular. Our brand of fear—which is frankly selfish—censors our thoughts almost unnoticed. Next time, let’s skip the delayed reaction. I for one hope to do better.
… and its expensive, successful effort to get their kid (now President Trump’s son-in-law) into Harvard. (The New York magazine article from which I got the quotation below is mainly about the jail time Papa Kushner has racked up. Money and influence can get you into Harvard, but apparently cannot always keep you out of jail.)
When Jared applied to college, Charlie was determined to get him into the most prestigious schools, and he called in favors to achieve his goal. In 1998, Charlie made a $2.5 million pledge to Harvard. According to The Price of Admission, the best-selling book written by Pulitzer Prize–winning Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Golden, Charlie asked New Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg to lobby Ted Kennedy to put in a call to Harvard admissions dean William Fitzsimmons on Jared’s behalf.
Alex Pareene, in Salon, reviews this history in light of Trump’s attack on Obama’s Harvard admission.
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And baby, I gotta tell you. UD has been covering universities for a long time, and the big affirmative action story is Kushner’s kid at Harvard, Ralph Lauren’s kids at Duke, and scads of other money admits. The Laurens are what’s called a “development family.”
Background here.
They will lose this round. UK’s destiny is way Adzillatron. But the faculty is fighting. If they’re in it for the long haul, they will eventually win.
