December 1st Changes.

Hi everyone. On December 1st, I will be turning moderation of the site over to an academic pal who has been reading CM since the beginning. She's a first rate person, someone who I trust completely, someone who I worked with just out of grad school, and someone who has more blog experience than I do. In her case she writes for a group blog only tangentially attached to academics.


Her moniker for her duties here is Leslie K. She's taught in both History and Education departments, and recently returned to the classroom after 9 years as a Dean at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. She's married to a neat guy who's better at making homemade brew than he is at anything else (isn't that enough?), and they have one 18 year old daughter who "turned her back on her family" and is in her first year of college at a "mammoth party school in the west." (Quotes are verbatim from Leslie K.)


Unlike me, she's not a romantic about RYS (which will please some of you and annoy the rest!), but I've had some great conversations with her about CM, and I believe she's far better prepared to run the site than I am. I have stressed how important the continued protection of the anonymity / pseudonymity of the site is, and all I can tell you folks is that I'm confident that the site, our shared space, our text, our identities, and the future of CM are all in good hands.


I feel a little flaky about begging off the duties after only about 5 months, but feel I don't have the time, energy, or perhaps the thick skin that the page sometime takes. I love it here, though, and will absolutely remain a commenter and - perhaps - a future CM correspondent. I have enjoyed meeting all of you, and am glad that I got the page up and running. It seems like so many of you have fun on the site, and I trust it will continue to grow.


I trust you'll give Leslie K. a chance to make the page work. She assures me that she's going to commit to running things for at least a year, and then see where the page is. Let me allow her to say hello.

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I've read CM from the beginning and love the page. It's a rollicking good time, and quite a bit more lively than the "political" blog I write for occasionally. In fact, CM is more fun and instructive than any academic-themed blog I can think of.

When Fab - who is a dear man, truly - and I first talked about me being involved, it felt like an easy move. I am half in love with so many of you already, and absolutely check CM in the morning before even my own email - or my daughter's Facebook page...ugh, don't ask.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please send email to the College Misery address in the sidebar. Fab will run things until December 1st, and then I'll come aboard. I hope the transition is simply seamless and unnoticed.

I have been in the blogworld enough to know that moderation is a necessary part of things. Very few of the folks who come here are eager to be abused or bullied, so it's not going to be tolerated. A slightly expanded set of "misery rules" appear at the top of the sidebar, but feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions.

My only goal is to help this excellent online community and "academic water cooler" thrive. And of course, to one day meet Yaro to see what color the sky is where he lives.

Sincerely,
Leslie K.