Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Living Abroad

I have also been tutoring a young Mexican man in English, and that has been pure joy. I realize I understand far more Spanish than I previously thought, and it has been delightful to dip back into that language. (I also have a friend and professional acquaintance who likes to chat with me via Facebook in Spanish. I miss doing that). In fact, because of the student and my Spanish-speaking friend, I am now determined more than ever to become fluent in it. That is one of many reasons why I am thinking about going abroad again for work. I also want to believe that the politics of everyday life is still possible, and I don't really see that here. That is not to say that it won't change, but it is dormant, and I find that suffocating. Incidentally, I didn't say that people here are dormant. That would be condescending and also absolutely false. It borders on being nihilistic too, and reminds me of nineteenth-century German images of a snoozing spießbürgerlich man in his cap and nightgown. This metaphor, that Americans are not awake politically, has come back in fashion, and I find it both nauseating and intriguing to hear people pronounce similar things that were suggested in Germany during the nineteenth century. To be clear, there are great differences between the two, but it immediately comes to mind when I hear people proclaim that their fellow Americans are "asleep" or "have their eyes closed."

Deutscher Michel

But what is like to live and work abroad? Would it be possible for you to give it a go? Likewise, would it be possible for me to try it again?

Many of you have expressed an interest in knowing what it was like for me to live and work abroad (see the comments to this piece). I think this is a great topic, and I have been delighted to read that many of you are not only considering work abroad, but that you have begun the process of applying for jobs overseas. In some cases you are already gone. Since I have a number of friends who are currently living abroad, or have already done so, I have asked if they would be willing to share their stories, too.

I think we should begin a series on AEM about living abroad. So with that said, first thing is first, and that means a return to 2009 when I was living in D.C., more precisely Springfield, VA, and considering a job in Korea . . .

Monday, May 2, 2011

Sifting Through The Historical Bins At Butler University

Copyright Notice: If you are not reading this at All Education Matters, and unless I've explicitly given an individual or entity permission to publish my work, this post has been illegally appropriated. Please read original content here.

When all the historical dust settles, we can no longer see what lies beneath all that old, old sediment. But if you're a lover of history, like I am, you know that there are plenty of things worth investigating under all that dust. It is time to sneeze a little bit, and venture into the historical dustbins at Butler University.

I've recently gotten some heat for sharing an assertion from what I call "a little bird" about Thomas M Cooley School of Law (see here and here). It turns out, this school is not very popular. In response to these posts, I received a threatening letter from a dean at the school. The dean's letter came up in a conversation I had today with a good friend and professional acquaintance. It reminded him of a situation that occurred a few years ago at Butler University. Since my friend knows how much I like to resurrect things, he kindly provided me with a libel suit that was slapped against a student there.

Back in 2008, a student named Jess Zimmerman launched a blog entitled, "TrueBUBlog." Zimmerman used a nom de plume, 'Soodo Nym.' Cute! I'm serious. I like it. In his first post, Soodo Nym stated, "this is not a forum for attack. It is a forum for truth." Eventually the administration caught wind of the blog. But there is a back story to why they discovered the blog. It turns out Zimmerman's stepmother, Andrea Gullickson, was at risk of being dismissed from her faculty position at the school. Zimmerman began to share internal emails on his blog about the situation, and argued that Peter Alexander, dean of Butler's College of Fine Arts, and Jamie Comstock, Butler's provost, did not deal with Gullickson's exit in a fair manner. At the time the IHE reporter wrote the article about this case, Gullickson had retained her position.

The school's attorney sent Zimmerman a letter, demanding that the blog be taken down. Zimmerman complied. Apparently, that wasn't good enough. In January of 2009, 'Soodo Nym' was slapped with a libel and defamation suit. The junior asserted that he was unaware that a suit had been filed against him, and did not learn of the case until later that summer. In addition, Zimmerman's father was a biology professor at Butler, and things become even more complicated with his relationship to the university. (For the all the details of the case, I encourage you to read the IHE report mentioned above).

As for the young man, Zimmerman's attorney Dan Altman argued that the case was a SLAPP (a strategic lawsuit against public participation). In so doing, Zimmerman would have to pay fees for his legal defense, which would ultimately silence him. Altman noted, "This isn't about winning. [. . .] I mean, what damages are they going to get out of a college junior?"

Zimmerman began a new blog, "I am John Doe," to publicly discuss the lawsuit that the Butler administration threatened him with for 5 months. In my view, Mr. Zimmerman had a lot of courage to stand up for what he thought was right. It's a shame that he was being aggressively sought by a university.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Relationships And Your Student Loan Debt

Copyright Notice: If you are not reading this at All Education Matters, and unless I've explicitly given an individual or entity permission to publish my work, this post has been illegally appropriated. Please read original content here.

Has your student loan debt affected your relationships (personal and professional)? Has it affected your own self-worth?