Harding University’s student newspaper, The Bison, of which I am a former staff member, is now available online.

That may be old news (no pun intended), but it’s news to me.

A student’s take on the Ann Coulter uproar is here:

It is embarrassing that Harding invited, publicized, and finally un-invited Coulter. How could anyone schedule someone like her to speak without knowing what they were getting? I think it’s backpedaling, plain and simple, in the face of dissent by a few Harding bloggers, and it points to a growing trend.

It’s interesting that Dr. Mark Elrod also has an article in the Bison’s first issue (not available online), given that he was one of the leaders of the dissent. Commenting on a blog:

You guys need to use your power as constituents of the university to keep the pressure up on the administration about speakers and other one-sided approaches to education. I don’t think many of the faculty here on my side of the fence have much leverage. The administration aleady [sic] knows where I stand so there’s little point in beating my head against the ASI wall. Starting tomorrow though, I can get back to pushing back the veils of ignorance in my classroom.

The veils of ignorance…

If I knew a professor had referred to me as ignorant, I would drop that class like, well, like ASI dropped Ann Coulter from its already-publicized schedule of speakers.

There’s also a note in the Bison about the HU College Democrats getting organized:

The College Democrats is sponsored by Dr. Jack Shock, professor of communication. For more information, contact sophomore Will Brown at…

I can’t imagine a better sponsor for the club. During 1995 and 1996, Dr. Shock spent some time working on President Bill Clinton’s PR team, the same year Monica Lewinsky took an internship at the White House.

As a freshman planning to major in journalism starting that next fall, I unwittingly took his Into to Mass Communication.

I marvel at the layers of irony there.

Dr. Shock is a decent man whose charitable work was recently written up in the Daily Citizen, but incidentally, he’s also part of the reason why I never finished another art class after high school. As my advisor, Dr. Shock put together my first class schedule and failed to note that my art class (drawing 101, or whatever) was two hours long, double-scheduling my second hour, and ultimately causing me to drop it. Aside from the required Art Appreciation course, I never took art again.

Dr. Shock also helped put together the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.