Blog-worthies?

Do you ever stop and count the number of Web sites you visit daily? There are the essentials: Webmail, Gmail, Facebook and (God forbid) MySpace. Then there are sites for you news junkies: NPR, CNN and The Onion (that's right, it's news -- sorta). Maybe you even visit idsnews.com as part of your daily online routine.\nHowever, we sincerely doubt that an online recap of the daily happenings of our administration is anywhere near the top of your must-visit list. Nonetheless, the presidents of about a dozen universities across the country have taken to the blogosphere. Never before has an attempt to be "down" and "hip" been more mundane. We have to ask ourselves: Are students actually reading this stuff? And if so, why? (Well, besides finding inspiration for editorials.)\nProponents of presidential blogging might point to several upsides: Presidents are often seen as distant pie-in-the-sky characters. Blogging humanizes these far-off figures for students who might otherwise feel disconnected from their well-paid leaders.\nAlso, blogging helps sell the university, and prospective students and donors may be turned on to an institution that is so "up-to-date" and "digital" that its president has his own online journal. \nHowever, for all the potential gains that presidential blogging offers, there are critical risks.\nDespite what you might think, presidents are busy people, and it takes a lot of work to earn their hefty pay (or should, anyway). Blogging is no cake walk, either. Just ask the few people who actually do it for a living. (Yes, some people actually get paid for this stuff.) Do we really want presidents spending their time locked in the distant confines of their offices, typing furiously about what they recently watched on TV? If we truly wanted to know, we'd walk into the office and ask. They are, after all, supposed to be open and accessible to students.\nAnother concern is that such blogging constitutes a great liability for the university, especially for public institutions. Some of the opinions aired on these blogs are unlikely to cause problems for the presidents involved. For example, it's unsurprising that on his blog, Bill Brown, president of Cedarville University, a private Christian school in Ohio, is critical of atheist thinking -- or that Patricia McGuire, president of Washington, D.C.'s private Trinity University, is enthusiastic about Nancy Pelosi becoming the first female speaker of the House (although one might wonder how Republican alumni might react). \nHowever, the situation becomes a lot more complicated if Adam Herbert, a public official, announces his position on, say, gay marriage and it's perceived as the view of the entirety of IU. While there's no guarantee that this will happen, such situations are completely possible when presidential blogging is officially connected to the university. \nAdam Herbert, by the way, doesn't maintain an official blog, nor are there any plans for one in the near future, says Media Relations Director Larry MacIntyre. Good thinking. Our advice to Herbert: There's no need to turn to the blogosphere. If you want to connect with students, come out and talk to us on our campuses. There's about 100,000 of us waiting for you.