Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Summer Break


Ethical College Admissions is taking a break for the rest of the summer (let me be clear that I mean ECA the blog, not college admissions practices that are ethical).  I had planned to start the hiatus a month ago, but waited for the Supreme Court to announce its decision in Fisher v. Texas.

I’m not spending summer in the Hamptons or the south of France, so if some issue of monumental importance raises its head I’ll be prepared to comment on it.  But this seems like a good time to step back, recharge, and focus on some other writing projects.

I started this blog last September not knowing if I would find anything to write about, whether I could discipline myself to post on a regular basis, and whether anyone would find it worth reading.  What I discovered was that all kinds of issues I couldn’t have anticipated popped up, and after a week went by following a post I felt an urge to sit down and address a new topic.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to blogging.  One is that the blogger should write for himself or herself.  The other is that blogging is about a conversation with readers.  I accept both views.  I have found that writing has helped me clarify my own thinking about issues, but knowing that there are people reading the blog, including people whose opinions I value greatly, has proved fulfilling at a level I couldn’t have imagined.  One analytical tool tells me that close to 5000 people have viewed the blog, with readers from 49 states (the holdout is North Dakota) and 30 other countries.  I am particularly grateful to those readers who sent me e-mails or told me in person that they enjoyed the blog.  That means more than you can know.

I already have a queue of topics I’d like to address, but I’ll also be thinking about how to improve the blog.  My original intention was to include both some short posts as well as the 900-1100 word sermonettes, but it will surprise no one who knows me that lengthy somehow won out.  The older I get, the preachier I become.  I am thinking about doing a several-part series tracing the evolution of the affirmative action issue from Bakke to Fisher.  I’d welcome suggestions for how to make the blog better or topics/issues you’d like to see addressed.

We are officially on break.  Back in September.