A tipper left notice yesterday that another Massachusetts college campus found "threatening notes" in the school bathrooms. After notes appeared at Bridgewater State and Framingham State, a janitor found notes in UMass-Amherst bathrooms. In the note found at Framingham State, threats included references to leap year, which falls on Friday. No one has said if there's a link among all the notes in the school bathrooms, but officials aren't playing around after what happened......

Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

--An update on the murder of Daniel Yakovleff, who was stabbed to death in Dorchester. The lawyer for the man who owned the apartment in which Yakovleff died says that the BPD no longer considers the owner a suspect and that they are looking for a third man who may be involved with the crime. However, the BPD is saying that the owner is still a "person of interest." Police are still trying to find......

The Sustainable Endowments Institute, which is based in Cambridge, has published its second annual College Sustainability Report Card. The Institute issues grades for schools in several green-friendly fields: Administration, Climate Change & Energy, Food & Recycling, Green Building, Transportation, Endowment Transparency, Investment Priorities, and Shareholder Engagement. The endowment and investment fields are crucial to the report because they indicate whether or not a school is putting its money where its mouth is and investing in......

--Six drag racers got busted for sneaky-driving on Washington Street in Roslindale early Sunday morning. Jessica M. Smith of the Roslindale Transcript reports that the racers set up lookouts. Five Honda Civics were towed as well. Did Honda Civics strike you as worthy of 2 Fast 2 Furious? --Mayor Menino and Commish Ed Davis have announced that they want colleges to crack down on students who act up during the World Series. Menino said that......

While most colleges live and die by US News & World Report, the Washington Monthly is offering competition with what's really important--how much the students help the community when they get their diplomas. Here are the three criteria from the Monthly: The first is social mobility: does the school do a good job recruiting and graduating poorer students? The second is research: is the school supporting the scientific and humanistic study that is key to......

MIT has gotten a bad rap in the press lately after sodium that may have come from the school burned volunteers cleaning up the Charles. It only got worse when MIT student Star Simpson spaced out, forgot to take off a sweatshirt with a circuit board on it, and freaked out Logan Airport staff. Right after Simpson was arrested and hauled to court, the MIT brass put out a statement calling Simpson's actions "reckless." That......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

It's college-ranking time. Of course, these rankings are about as scientific as a game of pin the tail on the donkey, but schools have a lot of fun learning about how other campuses see them. For example, the University of New Hampshire was named one of the top party schools. UNH is no West Virginia University, which appears to have abandoned the pretense of higher education altogether, but UNH was number seven on the party-hearty......

You'd think that the story of last night's Red Sox/Devil Rays series kickoff would be the glorious-yet-atypical change of character demonstrated by DR pitcher Scott Kazmir. Sure, we'll get to that, but c'mon - something huge happened. Julio Lugo safely hit the ball! And then he did it AGAIN! It had been a long, rough road for our offensively challenged shortstop - a road with 33 seemingly untravelable off-ramps along the way. Different spots in......

Last week UMass-Amherst faculty and librarians got together and took a vote. 214 stood, one remained sitting. The resounding message was that the faculty of the flagship campus in the university system was none too pleased with the recently released plan by system president Jack Wilson. The hometown team, UMass-Boston faculty, had scheduled their at bat against Wilson and the Trustees for today – but that vote has been postponed. The Globe reports that after......

Text messages aren't just our favorite way to vote Sanjaya off of American Idol, they're also the quickest way to get in touch, no matter where we are. The mobile is always close at hand (and usually in the pocket) if we're at a concert, in class, or even in the cube toiling away on our TPS reports a text message won't likely go ignored for long. A number of US colleges and universities have......

The Sox express train derailed last night, as the Jays finally solved Tim Wakefield en route to a 7-3 win. The culprits? Well, the first four guys in the lineup went 1-for-19. A doable 2-run deficit doubled in the 8th inning; Vernon Wells hit a rocket into center field. Wily Mo Pena looked more like Sily Mo Pena as the ball bounced over his outstretched glove and careened around for a triple. Aaron Hill then......

-- One down! After the five-game pounding that the Red Sox took from the Yankees at Fenway last August, Friday's matchup was more than just a game. It was more than just the first rivalry game of the season. It was about avenging the embarrassment that continued to smart for Sox fans over the winter and into the early season. The game itself was a battle of the best kind: one in which we came......

It seems like just yesterday that we were reading articles about the Sox home-field advantage, the way the team lights up the ballpark when they make it home to Yawkey Way. After Tuesday's 14-3 slaughter of the Mariners, Sox fans made their way into Fenway Park with cameras (lots and LOTS of cameras with very bright flashes) and the hopes that that advantage and the much-hyped Matsuzaka/Ichiro showdown would make for memorable baseball. It was......

The Bruins had their last game after flaming out so spectacularly toward the end of the season. They took on Ottawa and did what they do best - they lost, 6 to 3. When the Celtics are fighting harder than you are, you know it's time to hang it up. Coach Dave Lewis offered his typically cheerful thoughts on the season finale: "It's an awful feeling to play the last game of the year in......

Have we pretty much run out of Japan-themed headlines? Almost? OK. After all the hype and promise, Daisuke turned out to be everything Red Sox Nation could have hoped for. Of course, he gave up six hits and a run, so there's room for improvement, but Dice was firmly in control of the hapless Royals in the 4-1 victory. Which puts the Red Sox alone in first place, and makes us feel a little silly......

No one was madder about the Red Sox's rocky start than the game's starting pitcher, Curt Schilling. Curt's loooong wrapup of the game was glum beyond belief. Before launching into his recap, he said, "Not sure where to even start." He also said, "I knew my [fastball] command was crap." His post generated 263 responses, many of which defended Schilling against Dan Shaughnessy. Well, Shonda Schilling had the opportunity to defend her husband against Shaughnessy......

You read that right. The self-proclaimed "hedgehog," "hardest man in show business," porn star, and occasional reality-show participant Ron Jeremy will be debating pornography at Simmons – a women's college. As you can imagine, several Simmons Women are underwhelmed at the prospect of Ron Jeremy duking it out with author Susan Cole tonight. A senior from Simmons told the Herald: “He’s a white male who is very rich and has gotten very rich from pornography,......

The NCAA final four is tonight, with Georgetown playing Ohio State at 6 pm and UCLA playing Florida at 8:47 pm. To which we say, go anyone but Georgetown! Apologies to Doc Rivers' son, Jeremiah Rivers, who plays on the team as a guard with burly center Roy Hibbert, but we can't root for the team that thumped Boston College. And the start of baseball season is tomorrow. Since the first game of baseball season......

Major League Baseball has its share of problems, to be sure: the steroids scandal, the delicate maneuvering they'll have to do to pretend to be excited about Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's record, having to politely say "bite me" to any fan who can't afford or use a satellite dish but might want to watch more than just the hometown team. So with all these issues, baseball's finally getting serious, telling Red Sox all-around legend......

According to the Globe, our own Holy Cross was "prepared to get physical" against Southern Illinois in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but that's not quite how things turned out. According to other coaches, the Southern Illinois Salukis are absolutely terrifying. One guy said a team could imitate their defense if "We run down to the police station and we get all the German shepherd attack dogs and we just bring them onto......

We're eagerly waiting to see how our local NCAA matchups shake out. Boston College takes on Texas Tech and Bobby Knight tomorrow, and Holy Cross faces off against Southern Illinois on Friday. In the other big college basketball tournament, the NIT, the UMass Minutemen defeated Alabama in overtime 89 to 87. They'll advance into the next round to play West Virginia. So let's not forget the NIT in the face of March Madness. Speaking of,......

The findings of a scientific study recently asserted that this nation's college students are really into themselves. Since Boston is flush with colleges, this would mean the city is absolutely drunk on narcissism during the school year. According to the study, narcissists may love themselves, but that doesn't mean anyone loves them back: "[Narcissists] are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing,......

The weatherpeople are making that face. That face of unrestrainable glee, trying to contort itself into a look of worried sincerity. The face that means a storm is on the way. Luckily, a small part of all of our hearts headed down I-95 yesterday, as the Red Sox equipment truck left Fenway for the warm environs of Fort Myers. "Truck Day" is becoming one of those quaint little Boston traditions. It's our Groundhog Day......

The big action in town Monday night was at the Garden. Finally, we knew some local teams would leave the big barn happy. The 55th Beanpot Tournament got underway, with B.U. knocking off Northeastern 4-0 and B.C. taking care of Harvard 3-1. There will once again be some icy glares on the B trains this week. Gerald Green got the nod to represent the Celtics at the Sprite Slam Dunk Challenge at the All-Star Game.......

Although Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis has moved on from the Pats, he is at the center of a high-profile malpractice case that will go to trial next month – and Pats QB Tom Brady will be a star witness. During his stint as the Pats' offensive coordinator, Weis decided to have gastric bypass surgery in 2002. Weis was a big fella and didn't like how he looked. There's even a blog out there......

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj is the kind of love-it-or-hate-it college movie that will split the population of Boston moviegoers. A large chunk of them - the college students who flow in and out of the universities - will love the beer-soaked parties. The others - namely residents who dread the arrival of said rowdy students - will quake at the prospect of yet another movie that applauds collegiate partying. However, two......

While we recognize that matters of greater substance are transpiring in the world, Bostonist just can't get over the Opal Mehta plagiarism story. Perhaps it's because we're bitter, mediocre writers (we can hear you saying, "Yeah. That's it."). Perhaps it's because we feel a natural, class-based animosity toward people with lots of money who pay fancy consultants to get them into fancy colleges (not a fair reason to dislike people, we realize). But whatever the......

Early Fall brings to Boston some of the most beautiful weather days in the year. It also is a time for freshman orientation at the local universities and colleges. After orientation is done the fresh faces on campus seem to be high school students deciding if they’re going to take pains in writing the entrance essay and turn in an application for that institute of higher learning. As buds open in the spring the......