If you’re toying with the idea, you might want to read “Erasing Divide, College Leaders Take to Blogging” by Diana Jean Schemo published yesterday in The New York Time.
In January, I gave my take on the topic in a post titled “Top 3 reasons to get your university/college president blogginge,” but the NYT article provides some scary examples of what your president can expect when s/he starts to blog:
“Dr. Caret’s post titled “Education vs. Training†prompted a graduate student to complain about what he called a language barrier with foreign-born teachers. To illustrate his point, the student reprinted a note in broken English from one of his professors, which ended: “Of course, some class(es) may not satisfy your thirsty in terms of your learning expectation. But even those classes will be a small stone to build your career.â€
The student asked Dr. Caret, “Can students learning a new subject be expected to comprehend the new topic when they are too busy trying to comprehend what was just said?â€
Though Dr. Caret’s site posted the letter, he did not answer the question on his blog. In an e-mail message, he said he forwarded the complaint to the provost.”
As you can imagine, most lawyers are against the idea of president blogging as reported in this NYT article:
“If trustees are dissatisfied with a president, Mr. Cotton [a university lawyer] said, blogs offer a president’s adversaries ready ammunition. A casual comment taken out of context, a longstanding problem not addressed, or a politically controversial position can all torpedo a president, he said.
“In this day and age of political correctness,†Mr. Cotton said, “it exposes the president to all kinds of unfair and unwarranted criticism.—
It might, but it could also have gotten your president interviewed by The New York Time…
Does YOUR president (or VP or dean) blog? Let us know by posting a comment!