Brooklyn College SAF Creates A Stellar Website · 30 September 2005
A prominent heading explains that SAF is "a fast-growing national and non-partisan organization" that promotes intellectual diversity and offers a link to the national site and an email option to contact Eldad.
Sections of the site are clearly delimited, with links to the latest media coverage of the academic freedom movement and the latest announcements from the BC-SAF chapter. Buttons across the top of the site allow visitors to access other areas of the site, including an "about us" page detailing the reasons why the BC chapter was founded and links to the text of the Academic Bill of Rights and other organizations supporting academic freedom.
In addition to maintaining the website, Eldad sends frequent updates to a large list of students and other interested parties, linking to new articles on the BC-SAF and national SAF sites, and announcing breaking news. Anytime a big story or news of a victory breaks, the students and others who have registered with the BC-SAF listserve will learn about it in short order.
This ability to reach a wider audience instantaneously proved hugely beneficial last spring when the BC-SAF chapter found themselves one of the leading voices opposing the election of Professor Timothy Shortell to head BC's sociology department. Shortell had distinguished himself by stating in an essay that religious individuals are "moral retards" and "an ugly violent lot" provoking questions of whether he could fairly evaluate religious candidates for tenure in his departments (one of the chief responsibilities of the department chair).
In addition to his comments on the faithful, Shortell linked his official course website used by his students to a personal website which included such comments as: "Someone really ought to do a comparative study of this administration and the propaganda techniques of Nazi Germany. Karl Rove owes a lot to Joseph Goebbels."
Eldad broadcast the developing controversy over the website and appeared on Fox News to explain why he believed Shortell would not be an appropriate candidate for a department chair.
The media coverage and consequent pressure on Brooklyn College led to Shortell's resignation from the post, illustrating the ability of students to reform the climate on their campuses through exposing campus outrages.
When putting together your own campus website, Eldad advises students to, "Avoid too much clatter, and be sure to make the site easy to navigate and friendly to use, and most importantly update it frequently so your audience will come back for more. Consider it a work-in-progress, and aim to make it better all the time."
As the new academic year begins, I'd like to encourage you to create a website and email list. This is one of the most important ways you can bring our message to the campus community.
There is no faster or more efficient way to disseminate information than through a website and listserve. If an abuse of academic freedom occurs on campus, you can instantly broadcast it to a wider audience both within and beyond your university walls. Major media outlets like Drudge Report, Fox News, and others regularly pick up stories that they find on websites or blogs. The simple step of creating a website links your activities to a vast network of media contacts and supporters who can lend assistance and publicize your activities.
How to get started:
There are many free sites online that allow you to create websites at no charge, but most universities will also allow student organizations to host sites on their official servers. If your university does permit your chapter to use space on its official site, I encourage you to take advantage of the offer since it will lend credibility to your efforts and will show that you are intent at reforming your university from within.
If you are a registered Students for Academic Freedom chapter you are welcome to borrow graphics and logos (such as our three monkeys banner) from our official site, though several chapters have created their own unique designs, utilizing their school colors for example.
Once you create a website, please contact me at Sara@studentsforacademicfreedom.org to ask that we link your website from your chapter listing on our homepage. Also, please be sure to let us know about any stories you post about academic freedom violations that have occurred on your campuses. We can run these stories on our national website and help to shame your university into confronting these abuses.
Yours in Freedom,
Sara Dogan
National Campus Director
Students for Academic Freedom
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