University of Iowa professor Bloom granted sabbatical in New York

IOWA CITY - The Board of Regents on Wednesday approved sabbaticals in the next year for 110 faculty members, including University of Iowa professor Stephen Bloom, who has been harshly criticized for an article he wrote on his observations of life in Iowa.

According to journalism professor Bloom's 'professional development assignment” proposal, he will spend next year's spring semester working as an editor and observer for website Narratively in Brooklyn, NY, where he also will research, write and publish his fifth book.

That book, 'Stop the Presses! My Year Inside the Dot.Com Blast,” aims to assess the 'publishing revolution from ground zero,” according to Board of Regents documents.

'No longer are trees felled, transformed into paper in environmentally unfriendly mills, transported in multi-ton rolls to printing presses nationwide, converted to magazines, distributed via snail mail,” according to Bloom's proposal. 'This process is no longer feasible with the advent of the Internet, where with a series of keystrokes, a magazine can be created and instantly distributed with better graphics, more timely news, stories, analysis, and information.”

Bloom, according to regent documents, has taught magazine writing for 21 years at the University of Iowa and is 'an international leader in narrative writing.” He is the 12-state Midwest editor of Narratively, an online publication centered on the human narrative that was named by Time Magazine in 2013 as one of the top 50 Internet sites.

Bloom also is editor and publisher of Faction Magazine, a paperless product founded last year.

In 2011, Bloom penned an article for The Atlantic titled, 'Observations from 20 Years of Iowa Life,” which was widely critiqued for its take on culture in the state.

In the article, Bloom called Iowa 'politically schizophrenic, economically depressed, and culturally challenged.” He questioned Iowa's traditionally important role in the presidential election process, noting the state's lack of diversity and declining population.

Critics slammed Bloom's perpetuation of stereotypes, such as when he described rural Iowans as 'the elderly waiting to die, those too timid to peer around the bend for better opportunities, an assortment of waste-toids and meth addicts with pale skin and rotted teeth.”

The article sparked significant backlash, including a follow-up article in The Atlantic, a parody Twitter account, and expert analysis of the damage Bloom did to the state. Bloom even went on NBC's 'Rock Center” to defend his piece.

The 110 professional development assignments approved Wednesday across the three public universities for the 2015-2016 term is down by 14 from the prior year. That group represents 1.4 percent of all faculty at the institutions.

Of the faculty members approved for assignments, 56 are at UI, 37 are at Iowa State University, and 17 are at University of Northern Iowa. Budgeted replacement costs for faculty members while they're away total $487,400, including $173,280 at UI, $144,120 at ISU, and $170,000 at UNI.

University and regent officials said Wednesday that benefits from professional development assignments outweigh the costs. A report for assignments completed in the 2013-2014 school year, which also was received by the Board of Regents on Wednesday, indicates the value those sabbaticals added to students, universities, and the state totaled more than $12.1 million in funds obtained during or after the assignments.

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