I just want to say, while some people are really coming down on DeVry, that there are still a lot of good people there who don’t deserve the fallout. I think my firing involved a very small group of people who misjudged me and my students, and that was driven by DeVry’s somewhat secretive internal culture. I just want to be absolutely clear about this: I don’t want to see the building razed or anything, and I am by no means bitter toward the entire organization because of my experience. On the contrary, despite some things about the culture that made me uncomfortable there as a full-time employee–I was happy there as an adjunct–my overall experience there was very positive. So here’s what I’ll miss most:

1. Ample parking! I know that sounds like I’m not even trying, but as an adjunct at other universities with truly crappy parking situations, I can tell you that it’s actually quite a boon not to have to worry about where the hell you’re going to leave your car while you schlep your materials into some remote building far from peon parking.

2. My commute. I’m surprised I’m saying this, but it was a nice drive. The highway could be completely avoided, and I could take a local and sometimes very scenic road almost all the way there. I could also take the highway and save a few minutes. My other commute right now doesn’t offer those kinds of choices, but it was nice to be able to show up being as relaxed as I wanted to be.

3. The view! DeVry is in a spot that was fairly undeveloped just a few years ago, and the first bendervilles are just starting to go up there. (A “benderville,” as coined by Phillip, is a housing development where, should you come home on a bender, you cannot find your own house due to its striking similarity to all the others.) The view of the mountains is unobstructed, and if you are teaching in the back of the building, you can even watch weather come up and over them during the course of a class.

4. Working with the parents of some of my students. I think this says something really nice about DeVry: good family involvement. I had one mother apologize in advance for a paper her son was going to turn in to me, which was pretty funny. The paper was quite possibly the best one in the class, so I’m not quite sure what she was worried about, but it’s nice to be in a place where a student’s family cares about what he’s writing, and what he’s learning.

5. Having my own office. Even though I didn’t have any stuff to put in it yet and it was initially like a little cave, just having somewhere to keep my stuff was sublime. I didn’t have to carry 50 pounds’ worth of books and tools to class, have my arms shaking from muscle fatigue for the next hour, there was somewhere to hang my coat, and a nice amount of workspace.

6. The folks I worked with. I worked with a bunch of really nice people, and had begun to socialize with some of them outside work. I found everyone around me to be cheerful, pleasant and helpful. I would consider those I got to know friends.

7. My former direct supervisor. I’ve always been grateful to him, and I never got a chance to tell him. He gave me a job when I really needed it a couple of years ago, he was a generally supportive boss and a lively guy, he gave me a ton of fun and interesting assignments, and I was really enjoying working more closely with him.

8. My lab. I taught Anatomy and Physiology over the summer, and it was a really great experience. I got myself a lab coat, even though I was using primarily computer simulations and plastic models and there really wasn’t any need to protect my clothing from the plastic blood and guts. I did really like the pockets, though, and I really enjoyed the experience. I had hoped to teach it again at some point. Wheeling the skeleton down the hall or carrying a model of a brain around in my pocket was also crazy fun. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the utterly punishing–if quite tasteful–seating. Definitely made to please the eye and not the tush.

9. My faculty peeps. I had just finished meeting with a good portion of the folks who were teaching in my area. They were all lively, interesting, caring, and fun, and they all had great ideas for improving courses and supporting each other. I would think they would have been terrific in class. I was just about to go observe some of their terrific-ness in action the week I got canned. I’m sorry I missed that, and I’m sorry I missed working with them.

10. My students. I’ve indicated elsewhere how my students made me excited to get up and go teach class. Getting paid to hang out with these folks and tell them what I knew was amazing to me–I would have done it for nothing if I could have afforded it. I think a lot of my academic success stems from the incredible support I got from some of my advisors and teachers: the ones who pushed me to do better, who raised my expectations about myself, who gave me good advice and wrote me recommendations, and who became my friends. I did my best to pay it forward.

Ultimately, I don’t think DeVry should be nuked, because it does something important: it offers a hedge against poverty. I basically had two kinds of students: the ones who were very talented and were interested in getting a specialized bachelor’s degree at an accelerated speed (DeVry continues through the summer, so one can theoretically complete a full bachelor’s degree in 3 years instead of 4 if everything works out); and those who had already had a hard time and were just trying to get through college–although they were also quite sharp. Some of them had had trouble with the law, some of them had had trouble at home, and some had just had a hard time in high school because they were tactile learners (something I relate to). A lot of my students were the first in their families to go to college, and all they wanted was to make enough money not to worry about stuff and be able to buy a new car every so often. For that, they were willing to make incredible personal sacrifices. I think some of my students would not have been in college if it weren’t for places like DeVry that offered them the chance.

So basically, even though I thought that a number of things about working at DeVry were really very weird and potentially uncomfortable (that lab seating, for example–yeesh!), I also think there are a lot of good folks there that I wish well. In my case, there was just a handful of people who, for whatever reason, decided it was important to get rid of me. I don’t know who they are, and I don’t want to know–I don’t want to spend any time flipping through the mental Rolodex of great people I worked with, wondering who it was that wanted me gone. I’d rather think about all the good stuff.

Anyway, here’s what’s going on around the blogosphere.

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus Blog “Banished For Blogging: A professor at Devry University in Westminster, Colorado, has been fired, she says, for some ‘water-cooler kvetching’ about the institution on her blog.”

Thanks, Chronicle and Wired. This is indeed an important issue from a higher education standpoint, and I appreciate your opening the dialog–I have received a ton of email from folks who saw your posting.

Mousing Around “The reason why you dropped a link is the same reason many blog–to reach out and know we’re not alone in our classrooms, trying to make meaning from situations that are oppressive, lonely, and unrewarding. But, it’s also to find others to share our triumphs with. And, sometimes, blogs are the place to have real conversations…and those real conversations can have consequences. For some, a blog is a ticking time-bomb. I know mine is…but I was hardened to it by writing and publishing (not a blog, just stuff in a magazine) when I was not authorized to do so. Scary but then you realize, if I don’t write about this, then what am I? If I can’t write about this, then what worth is the suffering, the success that comes as a result of the trials, the benefit of sharing our failings with others so that they might learn? “Consider the plight of Meg who wasfired from her position for blogging. It’s wonderful she’s chosen to name her blog post the ‘I took the Green Pill,’ the obvious reference to The Matrix. The red pill allowed you to continue on as always, but the green pill…well, that changed your life forever. And, for Meg, it apparently has…”

Thanks for recognizing the Matrix reference, M! Some folks undoubtedly figured I was some kinda druggie. Take heart, suspicious folks: I had to take a drug test as a condition of full-time employment at DeVry (I know, I should have known then…). This guy is a really good writer, and offers a lot of insight about what it’s like to be in education.

TN Alliance for Personal Expression “Banished For Blogging: A professor at Devry University in Westminster, Colorado, has been fired, she says, for some ‘water-cooler kvetching’ about the institution on her blog.”

This is indeed a scary situation–thanks for taking notice! Ah, personal expression–it’s good stuff.