Congrats to Char Booth

http://infomational.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/farewell-cal-hello-claremont

Char Booth shares via her blog an upcoming move to a new position at the Claremont Colleges:

My love of organizational complexity and campus dynamics contributed to my decision to join the Claremont Colleges, which is a rare Oxford-style arrangement of small private institutions. Each maintains its own distinct personality, and what I have heard described as a “fiercely independent” academic/social culture. I imagine that this will make my combined job of coordinating instruction, outreach, and assessment approximately seven times more challenging (and seven times more interesting) than normal, not to mention upping the learning curve ante of a new job by a factorial degree.

Congrats Char!

I’m also happy to have caught up on her recent blog posts, including this brilliant piece:

http://infomational.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/thick-v-thin-as-in-skin/

Consider two polar approaches to commentary: critique and snark. The former is the communication of an impression, the latter is negative personal digression. Critique is objective, snark is subjective. Critique can be challenging, but it moves the conversation forward, whereas snark stops it in its tracks even when embedded in an otherwise valid contribution.

Please read the whole post. Char’s insights on the oh-so-easy-trap of snark in discourse ring true.