I’m all for transparency, but this is a timely reminder to imagine every email you write could end up on the front page of your local newspaper. If, that is, you are lucky enough to still have a local newspaper, one that has heard of the Freedom of Information Act. In this case, it’s remarkable student journalists at U Va who have been given the story of a lifetime. (Well, it IS going to be a watershed story in the history of American higher education, so I’m not being facetious or hyperbolic.)
Guess this counts as another mention of my newly controversial Chronicle article:
Emails between Dragas and Kington released by UVA on Wednesday indicate that much of their motivation to remove Sullivan stemmed from three media articles, rather than professional or academic literature. One, a New York Times column by David Brooks, lauded online courses, as did a Wall Street Journal editorial, and an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The emails were released after The Cavalier Daily, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request.