Twenty-eight years ago today (January 2, 1991), I sat in a hospital bed and watched “Hoosiers.” Mom had gone home to be with my brothers John and Jim, as Dad was still driving back east after making it several hundred miles west before he got the news and turned around. About six hours earlier in the day, I had been admitted to Wooster Community Hospital, to Room 404, so doctors could run tests. I had […]
Whenever we go back to Ohio for visits, I always make sure to stop in at Vertical Runner, the running store in Wooster. I did the same when we were there over the holidays and bought myself a new pair of running shoes. It was the last pair I’d buy in Vertical Runner’s original store, as they’re moving to a bigger facility, one that is also a historical Downtown Wooster building that has been beautifully […]
Here is the deposition of Ashland University President Carlos Campo. Once again, this is tied to the lawsuit that six former tenured faculty members have filed against the university, claiming that their termination was a breach of contract (which essentially means they’re claiming their firings were done in violation of Faculty Rules and Regulations). There are a few things that stood out to me in this deposition. • The university is arguing that it terminated faculty […]
Here is the testimony of College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dawn Weber. Weber arrived at Ashland University in the Fall of 2008, the same year I was hired as an assistant professor of English and Journalism. She was the only dean I had in eight years at AU. Reading through this deposition makes me think that Weber either has an incredibly horrible memory or she is not being entirely truthful. I mean, she testified that […]
Below is the Defendant’s (Ashland University) Motion for Summary Judgement, in relation to the civil lawsuit brought forth by six former tenured Ashland University faculty members, who were essentially fired in August 2015 (with their employment ending in December 2016). This document is essentially AU’s argument for why the university was in the right to terminate 14 tenured faculty members. Additionally, this is the first time I’ve seen the exact number of tenured faculty who […]
A couple weeks ago, I talked to my daughter’s sixth-grade cluster about memoir writing. It was a wonderful surprise to find a Newtown Bee reporter in the class that day, because she was there to write a story about my class visit. Here is the story that ran online on October 5, and then in print on Oct. 12! “With sixth grade students in Michelle Vaccaro and Courtney Martin’s cluster seated before him, district parent […]
One year ago today, I was celebrating the fact that Running With Ghosts had just gone on sale when I received a message via Facebook from a Maryanne Gabriele. The name didn’t look familiar, but I went ahead and read it anyway. She included a photo, along with the sentence, “That’s me and Melissa right before she was diagnosed.” The first sentence gave of her message me chills. I knew of Maryanne, from my talks […]
