Deo volente transition

The last post has brought us to a new phase in things, and my status in the FA has also changed. I'm now officially the FA spokesperson. We'll see how much speaking I do, but this new role makes maintaining my beloved identity as Blogger Dave unsustainable for the time being. That stay on message thing and all.

Luckily, Jonny Gray of Speech Communications, who's been writing lots of splendid comments of late and who knows Blogger inside and out, has agreed to take over lead blogging duties until such time as I can shed my Spokesman Dave role. I will certainly comment now and then, but I will do so in my official capacity, and do my best to only and always represent the FA position. In the meantime, the blog will be in good hands. Let's hope that Spokesman Dave has a short lifespan (and not only in order for me to return to obsessive work on the blog).

This isn't a true valedictory message, as I'll be back some day, but I did want to pause and thank those who have read this blog and posted so many fine comments (and so few foul ones) for thinking this blog worth their time. As I write this, we've had some 80,000 "pageviews", and almost 1900 comments. That is certainly more than I ever dreamed of (especially back in the early days when clicking on "don't count your own page views" halved the number of daily hits). I've learned a great deal from blogging here, and I hope the discussion this blog has fostered will prove not only to have helped people get informed about the current crisis, but to have a laid a foundation for more discussion between faculty across campus, and across disciplinary and ideological divides, once the current crisis ends. For this crisis shall end, and in all likelihood it will end before very long. 

Until then: Here's . . . . . Jonny! Nothing like a splendid joke to leave your audience eager for more as you step off stage.