Abstract. We present a new method for establishing universality limits in the bulk, based on the theory of entire functions of exponential type. Let be a measure on a compact subset of the real line. Assume that is absolutely continuous in a neighborhood of some point x in the support, and that 0 is bounded above and below near x, which is assumed to be a Lebesgue point of 0 . Then universality holds at x i¤ it holds "along the diagonal", that is lim n!1 Kn x + a n ; x + a n Kn (x; x) = 1;for all real a. The method does not require regularity of the measure as did earlier methods. Moreover, the assumption on the diagonal is certainly satis…ed in the case of regular measures, so that we obtain another proof of some recent results of Simon and Totik.