The Columnist Manifesto

One of the really nice (to me) things about our law school architecture is that faculty have no choice but to enter and exit through common areas where we are likely to encounter students. I much prefer that to the law school I attended, where faculty had entrances that really only served their office wing. They could come and go mysteriously, and seemed to beam themselves into and out of classes. I think I bumped into my professors in the building maybe 6 times in three years.

Yesterday, I was more or less greeted at the door by a group of 3-4 students. This conversation ensued:

Student: I like your blog.
Me: Really?
Student: Yes. "The Columnist Manifesto," right?
Me: Uh... yeah.
Student: Am I not supposed to say that?
Me: Well, let's just keep it our little secret.

My true identity is something of an open, or poorly kept, secret. In fact, the main function of my pseudonymity is to encourage precisely the reaction this student had -- that moment of doubt about whether it's a suitable topic of conversation around the law school.

I've blogged about this before. While I don't feel a need to keep this blog as a totally compartmentalized secret side, neither do I want students to come up to me and say things like:

"Hey, Professor Madison, exactly what sex acts do you think were missing from the marriage of those people who sat next to you in that deli?"

or

"Hey, Professor Madison, you said 'big butt!' Big butt, big butt, big butt!!!"

The fact is, I'm not completely consistent. On some level, I'd kind of like getting 300 hits per day to this blog from students. As long as we observed the little formality of "what's said on the blog stays outside the law school."

I guess it's not so much to ask that I can shed the mantle of "dignified law professor" and have a private life. And note that a "private life" shouldn't have to be as restricted as a "secret life."