Where is everyone?
Last semester had us thinking the faculty had really stepped into the 21st century with the UA Defender Blog, which was developed by some anonymous members to protest the firing of UA's VP for Instructional Development Garcia (who was opposed to the so-called mega-classes). Now we see that the last post was October 2, 2009.
If you try to visit the awesome site developed by ASU student Haroon Saleem, Speak Up Now AZ.org, you'll get re-directed; it doesn't exist anymore. The facebook and twitter pages still exist, but haven't been actively used since last summer.
The Chalk is Speech website, developed by outraged faculty during the Evan Lisull and Jacob Miller chalking affair, also seems to have fallen by the wayside.
Even the occasionally overly-enthusiastic Arizona for Education group hasn't posted to their blog since October of 2009.
The only blog that seems to be as strong as ever is the Desert Lamp. We don't always agree with them, but we still consider them one of the best resources for independent news and informed opinions on this campus.
This begs the question: Is blogging-as-resistance still viable? If we blog when we're angry, but then get frustrated and give up, is that resistance, or shouting into the wind? Last year these blogs were so much of a threat that Pres. Shelton actually mentioned them in his letter to the AZ Star (see our previous post "Well, Shame on Us"). Now they seem all but dead in the water.
Where do we go from here?
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