So once again, racial graffiti had appeared in NCSU’s Free Expression Tunnel.

    At North Carolina State University, we have a Free Expression Tunnel. 

    Turns out that a train track runs through our campus, and so to get from one side of campus to the other, tunnels were built under that train track. In the 1960s, by university administration, one tunnel was designated the Free Expression Tunnel making it the place where students could paint in any graffiti they would like.  In that tunnel, no surprise, there have been all manner of ugly racial, anti-gay, anti-female graffiti.  But with the election of Senator Barack Obama to the presidency, the racial graffiti has caught the attention of university students and administration because President Obama has been featured in that graffiti.

  

    Our neo-diverse student body has been outraged.  Not only outraged, but oriented toward finding ways to object and reduce the occurrence of this kind of racial graffiti.  The quandary is that the tunnel is a place for “free expression.”  Not only is it designated so by the university, many students see it as part of the tradition of the campus.  At the same time, many students at NCSU are not only offended by the graffiti but want others to know that this is not who they are. 

    So now there is a tension between the tradition of the Free Expression Tunnel and the neo-diverse identities of the student-citizens of the campus. Although a predominantly white campus of students, North Carolina State University is close to 20% non-white.  As importantly, no one can reasonably assume that all white students are the same with the same racial or other values.  White students are among those objecting to these racial-hate and anti-gay messages. 

    But can objecting matter?  After all, it’s called the Free-Expression-Tunnel.  How should we citizens of America think about these matters?  We need to think about these matters because eventually, in some form, these matters will show up in our particular communities.

    From June 1 until July 29 (today) I have been on my summer break.  As a professor with a (standard) nine-month contract, I have the opportunity and privilege to use my summer as I chose. In recent years, I have used my summers to work on my writing… not technical writing but fiction writing.  Summer 2010, for example, I spent a week at the writer’s conference at Santa Fe College, under the tutelage mystery writer Michael McGarrity.  I learned a lot.

    This summer I have spent revising my book manuscript which I have now titled “Briefing for Life on the Neo-Diversity Frontier.”  That book takes on in longer form some of the ideas I have been writing about on this blog.  I’ll let you know when I find a publisher.

    Otherwise this summer, I have been reading for fun.  In fact, one of the last things I did as the Spring semester was ending was make a list of books I intended to read this summer.  I don’t usually do it that systematically, but I got a request from our library to let them know what I planned to read.  Marian Fragola, the librarian making the request was doing so to put together a webpage that would highlight what selected faculty members planned to read over the summer.  Ms. Fragola did a great job with that webpage idea.  To see my reading list go to:

http://news.lib.ncsu.edu/wolfpacksummerreads/

    If you haven’t yet read them, I highly recommend the novels of Mary Doria Russell. At the beginning of the summer I read her newest, “Doc”; historical fiction about the true Doc Holliday; wow! I also read her science fiction novels “The Sparrow” and the follow-up “Children of God.” Religious science fiction of the highest caliber; not orthodox and preachy, but a good story filled with theological quandaries; also, wow!  

    I am telling you this to explain why I have been away from this blog. I needed a break to refresh myself, to give my brain a different focus.  So now I will again be posting regularly.  There’s a lot going on to comment on.  But first, my posts will be mostly about the evolution of “Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign for Change.”

    My summer interlude is over.