College Presidents' Blogs Open Door to Controversy

Nov. 22, 2006 — -- At Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., President Dick Celeste has joined the legions of campus bloggers with periodic postings he calls "The Flow of Ideas."

Celeste, the former governor of Ohio, says that like a growing number of college and university leaders, he uses the blog to connect in a personal way with the students he doesn't see regularly.

Often, Celeste uses a light tone, as when he recently wrote about leaving a cell phone on the roof of his car and then speeding off.

He says it may be time to talk to the neuroscientists on the faculty to understand "that set of brain cells that tells me exactly what is going to happen when I do something. But then is incapable of helping me avert that very consequence."

Many university presidents have embraced blogging as a way of bridging the gap between the administration and the student body.

That is particularly true at large universities with tens of thousands of students, like Michigan State, where personal contact is all but impossible. And the use of the campus Intranet is a way of communicating that is second nature to many students.

Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon, for example, has used her blog to underscore the university's mission by recommitting it to diversity.

But in many other cases, blogging college presidents can end up in a confrontation with other bloggers -- both students and faculty -- raising questions about whether this undermines one of the basic tenets of a liberal education: the open and accountable discussion of ideas.

For example, The New York Times reported today that in response to her blog, President Patricia McGuire of Trinity University in Washington recently faced what the Times described as a digital age dilemma.

McGuire was asked to respond to a student identified only by her screen name who turned in another student for using profanity on her personal Web page.

What disturbed McGuire was that the accusations were made anonymously. But since the message was sent to her blog, it was an issue she then had to deal with.