Recently, I posted an item on Sarah Palin’s abuse of the English language, which included her observation that if immigrants don’t want to be stigmatized, they should start “speaking American.” Very coincidentally, later on that same day, I came across an item in the discussion list for the American Dialect Society that included a link…
“Campus Sexual Assault Trial Congratulates Witch-Hunt Mind-Set [sic].” Legal Monitor Worldwide 12 Sep. 2015. Public universities should be able to use lower standards of evidence when deciding to expel students accused of sexual assault, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis said at a hearing in Washington, D.C. Polis, speaking at a higher education subcommittee meeting on…
This blog has included many posts about faculty members who have been demonized for statements that they have made on social media and/or who have been haunted, professionally and personally, by things that have been posted about them on social media or on the Web. Though there are permutations of this phenomenon specific to academia,…
The first is included in an article by Brentin Mock published in Atlantic. Titled “There Are No Urban Design Courses on Race and Justice, So We Made Our Own Syllabus,” the article includes the following list of suggested readings culled by Mock from a larger number of suggestions sent to him by the urban-design faculty…
“Change in any industry is difficult, but it is particularly problematic in higher education with its unique culture and history of shared governance.” So begins the description of the first “module” offered by the new Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership. The Academy, which launches in November, bills itself as “the premier training ground for those…
As editors used to say, here is an item that I received “over the transom.” Paraprosdokians are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected, and are frequently humorous. 1. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research. 2. Where there’s…
One year ago, on September 11, 2014, Stephen Salaita was fired by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. This is not a date that has attracted any media attention on its anniversary, and seems to have gone completely unmentioned, perhaps because Salaita’s dismissal by this time was a foregone conclusion. But this is a…
When I was growing up, the father of one of my friends was just about the least profane man that I knew. When he confronted some circumstance that very much surprised, confounded, or angered him, he would say, “Sweet Mother of Jesus!” Although e used the phrase so selectively and uttered it with such intensity…
Butler University Dean of Communications Gary Edgerton has fired the adviser of the student newspaper, Loni Smith McKown. Here’s how it happened: On August 19, McKown received an email sent to faculty by Edgerton about potential budget cuts due to lower projected enrollments. She forwarded the email to the editors of the Collegian, as she…
On his show tonight, Chris Hayes asked Al Franken if Donald Trump’s campaign made him wish that he were still writing comic sketches and doing stand-up comedy. Franken, of course, said that he was very absorbed in doing his work as a U.S. Senator and that there are countless comedians taking full advantage of Trump’s…