Tomorrow, I do solemnly swear…

Tomorrow, Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office as our 45th president. He will swear (or affirm) that he: “will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” I, on the other hand, am skipping …

And so it begins…

By the time you read this, I will be standing in front of my JRNL 3367 (Interpretive and Editorial Writing) class, my start to the Spring 2017 semester at University of New Haven. This is my fourth semester teaching there, and I have to say, the contrast between this semester and the first, say, two, is …

And another thing…

…there is a discussion online about the veracity (and wisdom) of wearing a safety pin to signal that you are an ally to members of any group of people who feel threatened by last week’s election results. I think any one who thinks by donning a safety pin they’ve made everything all better is silly. But …

Later, nerds

So University of New Haven, where I teach, had graduation yesterday, in a big ol’ concert venue, and I volunteered to be there. I’m still new enough at the job that I don’t sigh and dig out my regalia with a sense of whatever. (In fact, I don’t own regalia, and the school had to supply …

Proposed Hartford school budget would eliminate 235 full-time positions

This is the Courant story, and this is the situation: Hartford has under-performing, low-resource schools already. What do you think the elimination of so many positions will accomplish? Forty-seven of those eliminations come from consolidating four schools, but the rest? I’ve been in Connecticut for 30 years now, and I wonder: How many generations of …

Check out what my #COMM4500 students are doing.

We are writing a blog about wealth and income inequality and I’m really proud of the work they’ve done so far. We’re six weeks away from the end of the semester, and I’ve promised the students that if they can hit 10,000 views by semester’s end, they’ll get pizza. Tell all your friends — even if it’ll cost …

When students tell teachers how they felt about them

A student wrote to thank me yesterday

I know. Big whup. But as I read her message, I started to tear up. Maybe I’m losing it in my dotage, but she was able to quote lessons from a class I taught a year ago and I don’t remember the last time I felt so good about something I did professionally. I mean, …

Opportunities to pray (or just be) with your extended family

The Hartford Seminary is hosting an Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the seminary at 77 Sherman in Hartford. The program, organized by seminary students, should last about an hour, and will include speeches by several student leaders, readings from letters by family members of recent victims, interfaith prayer, song and …

Tim Wise set it on fire at Bridging the Gap: A Dream Deferred

Educator/activist Tim Wise acknowledged at the outset of his hour-long talk on Thursday that he was yes, a white, straight man who was going to talk about race. And then he did. He quoted stats. He told stories. He made the crowd laugh, cheer, and generally come away filled with the possibilities. This was CCSU’s …