Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

U-M President address announcement abysmal

16. September 2004 • Brian Kerr
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Human beings across campus have just received what appears to be an early draft of an e-mail announcing President Coleman’s address next week:

President Mary Sue Coleman will present her first university-wide address on Monday, September 20, in Rackham Auditorium, from 3:15-4:00 PM. All students, faculty, staff, and other friends of the University are invited to attend.

She will discuss her priorities and aspirations for the University, current initiatives underway, and the future opportunities and challenges facing the University of Michigan.

A reception in the lobby of the Rackham Building will follow her address.

This event is co-sponsored by the Faculty Senate and the Office of the President.

One initiative not currently underway—English 125. For the morbid, the text of this message appears to be a mangled expansion of the Record’s event announcement (which itself contains at least one extra instance of that long-suffering word, ‘at’).



  1. This was the woman all you liberals so badly wanted.

    I remember Coleman and Granholm both coming to Michigan at the same time, and all the lefties were dancing in the streets.

    Not what you all expected, eh?

    Brian White was the best guy for the job. Duderstadt was the best guy then too. Maybe the next one will be good too, and hopefully that will come sooner than later.
       —T.J.    Sep. 16 '04 - 02:56AM    #
  2. * http://arborupdate.com/article/92/#c000636
    * http://arborupdate.com/article/224/#c000966
       —Brian    Sep. 16 '04 - 08:17AM    #
  3. Pick, pick, pick. What do you want, poetry? For once, an official announcement that isn’t flowery and overblown. It’s a memo. Read it, file it in your brain, and delete it.
       —Ben    Sep. 16 '04 - 10:33AM    #
  4. What’s your point, Brian?

    Grow up, dude.
       —T.J.    Sep. 16 '04 - 12:41PM    #
  5. U-M President address announcement abysmal, area blogger’s response pedantic.

    Regardless, the post was hardly grounds for suggesting that a handful of grammatical errors makes Coleman unqualified for the job, let alone an excuse for what I presume T.J. intended to be an scathingly insightful conservative riposte about liberals and lefties.
       —Andrew    Sep. 16 '04 - 12:57PM    #
  6. Insightful? No.

    Just that Coleman went from being a champion of the liberal cause and hero to the liberal masses to a constant target for ridicule.

    She’s done a bad job, and after the way the lefties celebrated when she was hired, I think we have the right to rub your noses in it when it turns out you were wrong.

    Take your lumps.
       —T.J.    Sep. 16 '04 - 01:07PM    #
  7. “U-M President address announcement abysmal, area blogger’s response pedantic.”

    I’ll take that as a compliment. :)

    While I suppose it’s (ostensibly) good to have redundant event notices shotgun-blasted into e-mail inboxes across campus, and while it is certainly notable that this one is actually short enough to scan, read, and retain, I don’t understand why it wasn’t proofread before sent. If it looks half-assed, it’ll leave a half-assed impression—or at least that’s how it works for this recipient.

    Pick, pick, pick!
       —Brian    Sep. 16 '04 - 01:34PM    #
  8. “You Liberals” – T.J. please just go away and write a book on what that means.
       —Mark    Sep. 16 '04 - 01:36PM    #
  9. Very simple.

    You – meaning you.
    Liberals – meaning liberals.

    It’s not rocket surgery, Einstein.
       —T.J.    Sep. 17 '04 - 01:50AM    #
  10. Has anyone informed T.J. that it probably wasn’t Mary Sue that wrote the e-mail? Or, rather, the person posing as T.J., since he doesn’t post here anymore.
       —Eric    Sep. 17 '04 - 12:57PM    #
  11. What difference does it make if she wrote it or not?
       —T.J.    Sep. 17 '04 - 01:10PM    #
  12. T.J. said: >

    I didn’t see the point; the original post was about the grammatical errors, and the first response you had was “This was the woman all you liberals so badly wanted.”

    I gotta say, whoever you are, you are doing a pretty good job of impersonating T.J. You have the poor memory and spittle-spewing frustration nearly perfected! two thumbs up
       —Eric    Sep. 17 '04 - 01:13PM    #
  13. if anything is abyssmal, its this thread…

    fighting hurrican ivan,
    ari p.
       —Ari P.    Sep. 17 '04 - 02:00PM    #
  14. Hang in there, Ari P. :)

    My atheistic quasi-prayers be with you. And also with you. And also with you.
       —Eric    Sep. 17 '04 - 04:23PM    #