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Chicago State University Lawyers Attack Faculty Bloggers
An anonymous reader writes "A blog run by faculty members at Chicago State University (CSU) has been threatened by university lawyers with a cease and desist notice. Since 2009 the blog has posted information critical of CSU's policies and hiring practices. The notice threatened legal action if the site is not disabled by Friday due to violations of 'trade names and marks' without permission and violations of University policies. The blog admin changed the name of the blog in the meanwhile to Crony State University and replaced an image on the page pending legal counsel. Also the blog is currently still active."
Doesn't this fall under some anti-slapp law?
I might also recommend: Crony Streisand University
I can't think of a more ringing endorsement of what the CSU faculty are doing with this blog.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
CSU better trademark "Crony State U" so they can shut down the new blog.
Meanwhile, color me surprised that the administration is showing no interest in resolving the faculty members' complaints.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Did they shoot them?
Did they charge at them with knives/machetes?
Did they break a chair over their heads?
Did they jump on them and start pummeling them?
Did they walk up and punch them?
Did they push them?
...
The lawyers didn't really attack anyone or anything, did they? Let's start using words of specific meaning as they were meant to be used, shall we?
Up next "bullying".
Do Chicago State University lawyers also send cease ad desist letters to faculty bloggers that are supportive of its policies and hiring practices? Or do they apply the government standard of never prosecuting leaks that makes the government looks good even if they damage national security?
Is alive and well.
Welcome to the era of thought crimes, and consequences for "potential intentions".
Only in academia would faculty feel entitled to freely criticize their employer while expecting their employer to turn a blind eye. In any other field you would be canned on the spot for doing something like this. Possibly government employees in some departments would have similar attitudes?
Now you can argue that academia has it right and the rest of society has it wrong or you could call the faculty self entitled tenured representations of antiquity. Having worked in the private industry as well as some years in a very large University one could argue this either way.
I think you dictionary is broken, but congratulations on sucking a few positive moderations.
There's no troll like a smooth troll.
I poked around the blog a bit. It's more than a little creepy. They have people's resumes and pay scales available for all to see. That's just weird. What did the janitors at Olive-Harvey do to deserve having their names and wages published? That's wholly inappropriate, and not necessary to make the author's point.
A: Ties.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
News for nerds, stuff that matters, and the latest outrageous flamebait gossip to stir up ad-watching lynch mobs!
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Sharks don't have necks!
lawyers don't stick their necks out, either.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
"The reason academic politics are so bitter is that so little is at stake."
Attributed to various people.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Rights? You have to upgrade your service plan to get those.
Remember, it's a business, not a place for scholarly pursuits ...
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You can say whatever you want about anything or anyone you want as long as it's true. The legal department can threaten you all they want and truthfully it's a joke. The University can't fight you on anything that you say as long as you don't lie! As for using images and banners from the University well chances are they are publically or facility usable, I would check with the University non legal department before anything else.
In this at least, academia had it right and the rest of society has it wrong.
The traditions of the academy stem from outdated (medieval) notions of freedom. Colleges are supposed to be collegiate, as groups of free scholars able to speak their minds freely. The university administration should serve the colleges and if the administration is corrupt then the scholars owe it to the institution and to their students to object. Otherwise, there is no check on the administration.
Professors should not be mere employees. (Of course, as you'll see, I don't think anyone is or should be a mere employee.) They ought to be members of a guild, granted the right to teach freely because they're recognized and accepted by their peers. Anything less and they become mere proletariat, providing their labor to a large institution which claims the right to fire them at whim.
Now, I say all this recognizing that de facto faculty are mere employees. For this reason, I've even argued that faculty ought to unionize. If we can't have the guild, at least we can have the union to offset the power of our employer.
Lest one should say this thinking makes me "entitled" because I'm an academic, as though that were something special, I would say this again: the rest of society has it wrong. Your employer does not own you. You are a free man or a free woman. If you perform your duties diligently, the duties you've promised to perform by agreement, you ought to be remunerated. Beyond this, they have no claim on you. It is a crime against the freedom and dignity of people that we've allowed employers to command our lives outside that time we've given them in exchange for payment. It is a great loss that we've reduced our notion of freedom to a mere matter of politics, while allowing employment organizational charts to dictate our lives in ways we would never tolerate from government.
Sitting here in an academic library, a janitor just walked by and wiped off the table next to me. So long as he continues to wipe off tables when he is obligated to do so, he ought in spare time to be able to call me, the university president, or the president of the United States a useless layabout.
I would propose that our notion of freedom extend beyond mere politics. I would submit that employers do not own their employees and that work is not the most important aspect of life. And while I am at it, I would close down everything but essential services on Thanksgiving day. The medieval peasant had more holidays than the modern proletariat. I've grown tired of the implication that longer hours away from loved ones, serving some robber baron who will leave one jobless and destitute for speaking ill of him, can be called progress
So, yes, I am an academic. I claim certain anachronistic rights and I wish only the same for you. /anachronisticrant
Some species of sharks are endangered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_threatened_sharks
If they're being threatened by lawyers, I would take that as a sign that they're being very successful. It seems that this day and age, you aren't doing your job properly until you start getting cease and desist orders.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
A: To hold the foreskin back.
Rhapsody in Numbers