Having just read Billmon's lament that blogs are selling out, it was something of a shock to learn from an email correspondent just how low my market value seems to be (jpeg).
A Personal Blog
by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
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At least you have some market value. My site had $0.00 value on Froogle.
Michael – Thought you might be interested in this interview with Donna Shalala..
The first Bush-Kerry Presidential debate will be held at the University of Miami’s campus in Coral Gables on Thursday, September 30, to be moderated by PBS’s Jim Lehrer. Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, became President of the University on June 1, 2001. With an undergraduate enrollment of 9,000, Shalala points out that the university is more diversified than many: 29% Hispanic, 12% African American, and 10% international students.
Bisnow: What do Miami students think about the big debate?
Our students are so excited they’re beside themselves. We have hundreds of them volunteering for the event, showing the press around, and so forth. MSNBC and C-Span are coming. I hope Chris Matthews is going to come and set up outside the student cente, which is crowded with tables on different issues and parties. 5000 people came to hear James Carville and Mary Matalin the other day. It was held in the convocation center, where basketball is played and where the debate’s going to be held.
How are tickets allotted?
Basically they’re split between the political parties. What few tickets we get will be given to students, and we’re running a little essay contest, which will be judged by faculty members. But only students are going. In fact, I will get into the room to welcome everybody, and then I will walk out and give my seat to a student. The debate is really about their future.
How’d you get the debate?
We applied to the commission a year agoa huge proposal. And we had to guarantee a certain amount of money and get a sponsor for that amount of money. I talked the Miccosukee Indians into sponsoring the debate.
Why would they do that?
I told them it was a good civic contribution, and the fact Native Americans were sponsoring would be really significant. .
You have a lot of political activities are going on there.
The Dalai Lama is coming to talk about peace and love. Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann are coming to talk about how the candidates would govern. John Kerry has been here, Nader is coming, we’d like to find Bush and Kerry surrogates, but they need to know how to talk to 18 to 22 year olds. The events are open to everyone and we pipe them in to student residence halls. For the candidates, we use outdoor venues on our beautiful palm tree lined campus, and we put a microphone up and basically have pep rallies. Even the Declaration of independence comingthe one Norman Lear bought will be at the student center during the week of the debate. The World Wrestling Federation is doing Smack the Vote in one of our auditoriums. And MTV is doing Rock the Vote.
The bottom line is to register voters?
Yes. The place where the debate is going to be held will be a precinct on election day. The students are going to be able to vote on campus and 1000 have registered to do so, and another 1000 have filled out absentee ballots. All of our events are sponsored by the Democratic and Republican student organizations, and they came together and formed another student organization that is non-partisan for voter registration.
How many of your students will actually vote?
I hope half. I hope double the national average for young people of these ages. We’re going to make it very easy for them to do it.
There are protests about the war, but it seems unlike the Vietnam era where a large group was totally anti-establishment.
Yes. Mary Matalin told me when she was here that she was tired of going onto college campuses where guys with gray hair and ponytails asked her outrageous questions. And I said, you’re not going to find that at the University of Miami, you’re going to find energetic young people who have serious questions, and who are Republicans, Democrats, and independents. And I think she was very pleased with what she heard here, that the student cheered for her and for James and were interested in their answers about careers and how you get into politics.
Is all this political emphasis a reflection of your background?
We took advantage of the opportunity to have the debate and then built around it the political significance of this year. We built an intellectual experience for our whole community. Students are interested in politics this year because they know it’s about their future. They’re not focused on Medicare or Social Security, but on Iraq, what kind of jobs they’ll be able to get, on leadership. But we have always had a high level of political interest here.
Why?
Because a lot of students here want to go to law school 🙂
as I commented on Drum site…
The usefulness of a blog which allows comments is inversely proportional to the popularity of the blog itself.
This is a very useful blog, imho.
Don’t worry. If we all work together I’m sure we can get your value up well over the five dollar mark. Of course, if you were worried about money, you wouldn’t be teaching law, you’d be working for Microsoft.
Now, now–let’s not exaggerate the poverty of our professoriate. Law professors are the top dogs when it comes to base pay, and the average prof university-wide doesn’t do too badly either (see the Chronicle of Higher Education Salary Figures). And at a private university, one typically does even better.
It definitely sucks being a professor of English, Fine Arts, or the Humanities when it comes to money. I’m sure they’d agree if any of them happen to wander by.
Look, blogs are just another way of pamphleteering, with a fast response channel for the readers. So some of the pamphlets are used for toilet paper, and others are read. Some both.