UA psychology professor Deborah Frisch has resigned from her post at the University of Arizona following blogospheric controversy after she attacked Protein Wisdom blogger Jeff Goldstein and his toddler son. Fortunately, Frisch has resigned rather than exacerbating the problem for the psych department.

National bloggers everywhere are already all over the news, so I’ll let them do what they do best (and very well) and report what hasn’t come out.

Frisch, according to the university's Teacher-Course Evaluation website (sorry, only "members of the UA community" are allowed in) is recorded as having taught nine individual psychology courses, most recently PSYC 290A: "Research Methods". 93% of the 122 students in this most recent course listed her as either being "almost always effective" or "usually effective."

Frisch's Facebook profile (again, UA community only) does not list much other than her already-confirmed teaching of the "Research Methods" course.

A Google search for her name in the Arizona Daily Wildcat yields three results in the paper:

• Shortly after the 2004 election, Frisch responded to John Kerry's loss with a seemingly vague and confusing letter declaring that "Javelinas are running the asylum."
• Frisch told disrespected mall evangelist Jed Smock to get his "sorry ass out of town" in February of 2005. She has more on that confrontation on her blog.
• In a March 2005 article, Frisch is quoted as having had a debate with respected mall evangelist Cliffe Knechtle.

Frisch seems to fit every conservative's stereotype of a liberal wacko college professor, but even I don't expect them to make threats to bloggers, or even to sing rhymes about how Bush's "brain's in his tush."

Update: UA grad Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority has comments from a nameless UA employee who makes some good points regarding why Goldstein ought to demand a letter of apology. Moreover, Frisch was actually "about one step higher than a TA", not a tenured professor.