Today's CoHE features dueling First Person essays on that most fraught of topics, online anonymity. Peter Plagens says "nay"; three Anon Academics say "yea." I hereby issue my pronouncement from on high (er, well, it would be from on high if I were taller than 5'3''--maybe I should put on some high heels before continuing--but you get the idea):
It depends.
Some academics really will be fired/denied tenure/shunned/sentenced to a lifetime of sharpening pencils because a Higher Up dislikes their opinions about, say, Macs vs. PCs. Others will not. Some departments will gun for a colleague/graduate student who even hints at having a blog. Others will not. Some administrations will absolutely pitch a fit about openly gay faculty. Others will not. Some senior faculty will put out APBs on junior faculty who dare to question the Ways Things Have Always Been Done Here. Others will not. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseam. Ultimately, the judgment call belongs to the academic in question, not Backseat Bloggers.
Way too sensible!
Posted by: The Constructivist | April 03, 2008 at 04:07 AM
Terribly belated, I know, but, since "Things Victorian and Academic" apparently do not include reading comprehension and logic:
1. My essay in the Chronicle was not about blogging; it concerned essays in a particular journal of higher education.
2. Of course whether or not to write anonymously or pseudononymously "belongs to the academic in question." That's why I didn't issue an Executive Order forbidding it, but instead only wrote an essay laying out an argument against it.
Sheesh!
Posted by: Peter Plagens | April 21, 2008 at 10:50 AM