Oof, I have been totally remiss of late. I’ve gotten some good links and comment responses, and here’s the newer stuff that I’m aware of…

Openwyre “A professor at DeVry University in Westminster who says she was fired for criticizing the school on her blog is stirring up an academic freedom debate in the blogosphere.”

Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Midgebop asks so many good questions, I feel the need to quote the whole damn thing!

“Your Blog Can Really Get You Fired: Uh-oh. Do I need to watch my kvetching? Do I need to eliminate anything that might be construed as disparaging toward my place of employment? Perhaps, based on the experience of Meg Spohn of DeVry University. It seems her blog might have gotten her fired. Ah, but where’s the freedom of expression if I start to limit all my blogging? If I teach my students that writing is an experimental form of expression, a way to release what’s inside, to influence, to expose, to celebrate, then wouldn’t it be hypocritical if I censored everything? Of course, I do already censor and am careful to not write too directly about certain incidents in my workplace or my personal life that might lead to embarrassment. Just something to ponder as I consider audience and release myself into the blogosphere on a regular basis.

“OK, so then I reread what I wrote and it actually pisses me off that your blog could get you fired. After all, unless I am releasing some top secret information, like the new atomic formula that helps students go to school without paying their bills, what’s the harm of a soft critique of things that don’t quite work from my perspective. I never name names (to protect the guilty) and always blog in the spirit of venting if I’m kvetching about something. Ah, silly silly bureaucrats, afraid of words, words, words. Uh-oh. Your blog (or my blog) could get you fired. ACLU where are you?”

You know, when I was fired, the ACLU was one of my first stops. If you call them, though, you get a message telling you to write them a letter and wait 6 weeks, and that they won’t be calling you back even if you leave a message. Now, I’m sure the ACLU has a huge volume of calls, many of them from cranks, and they have to have some kind of method for ferreting out folks who are actually serious. However, I do think it’s ironic that the organization that is supposed to protect free speech won’t talk to you.

Bloggers Blog “DeVry University Professor Fired Over Blog: The Denver Post reports that Meg Spohn, a DeVry University professor, was fired for her blog which was critical of DeVry. The Post says that some academic bloggers don’t think this would have happened to Spohn if she had been a professor at a public university.”

I might take mild issue with this characterization, which is becoming more and more common. I don’t think my blog is all that critical of DeVry, and those who actually take a look at it don’t either. This makes it sound like I got caught actually doing something, which is not really the case. Ironically, Blogger’s Blog doesn’t allow comments, so I guess all I can do about it is tell you. Hah! You read it! I guess it’s possible I might have fared better at a public university. After all, public universities are large and don’t generally have the time to keep employees’ personal lives under surveillance.