Zoom Town Hall, Website & Book Club
Hello readers of the ‘Dear Stanford’ Student Letter Project!
First, we want to thank you so much for subscribing to this Substack. Since the Jones Lecturers were fired on August 21st, we have had the honor of publishing 26 amazing student and alum letters. If you’re a student or an alum and haven’t sent us a letter yet, we encourage you to do so - you can send your letter to:
savethejoneslecturers@gmail.com
Today, I (Austin) am borrowing this space to share a few exciting developments. First, it’s been very inspiring to be back on campus this week. I made a sign which I’ve been carrying everywhere, and which has served the hoped-for purpose of spreading the word about this incomprehensible decision. Many students and staff had heard about the firings, but stopped me to ask for more information. To this end, my colleague Tom Kealey and I are going to host an informal Zoom town hall this evening (Thursday, September 26th) beginning at 7:30 pm PST. While one purpose of this town hall is to answer any questions students might have, everyone is welcome to join. Here are the Zoom details:
Time: 7:30pm, Thursday Sept 26
Zoom Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81430466020?pwd=uLJaRoCDjfkNab797C3wDJkTIy8m5x.1
Meeting ID: 814 3046 6020
Passcode: 365036
Prior to the Town Hall, from 5:30 to 7 pm PST, I’ll be hosting the first meeting of our ‘Be a Stoner’ bookclub, in which we discuss John Williams’s classic academic novel STONER and it’s relevancy for the present situation at Stanford and in the humanities generally. You don’t have to have read the novel to join! But tonight we’ll talk about the first two chapters of the book (we’re using the NYRB version), and we’ll be discussing two chapters a week throughout the fall quarter. Feel free to write to savethejoneslecturers@gmail.com for more information. Here is the Zoom link for the book club tonight if you’d like to join:
Finally, we now have a website for consolidating all information in one place. Check it out:
Save Stanford Creative Writing
Shoutout Ben for all of your work on this, and shoutout while I’m at it to all of the students and alums who’ve supported us. And, lastly, thank YOU for your interest in this situation which, because it impacts our students, impacts us all.
Austin