Jess Zimmerman

from the Inside Higher Ed: Jess Zimmerman, a junior at Butler, created “TrueBU Blog” in October 2008 to chronicle happenings he deemed of import at the institution. Though he managed the blog anonymously under the tongue-in-cheek moniker “Soodo Nym,” he has recently come forward publicly. In addition to posts by Zimmerman, the blog also featured “reports” from other anonymous faculty and student “correspondents.”

In January [2009], the university filed a libel and defamation suit against “Soodo Nym,” listing numerous statements from his blog that they argue “have harmed the honesty, integrity, and professional reputation of Butler University and two of its high-level administrators.” University officials insist that, at the time the suit was filed, they did not know that Zimmerman was the blog’s author, and they hoped the case would identify the author.

Indiana Daily Student says “He (Zimmerman) was critical of Butler and two administrators: Peter Alexander, dean of Butler’s College of Fine Arts, and Jamie Comstock, Butler’s provost.

He wrote things like “Peter Alexander … is power-hungry and afraid of his own shadow. … He drives away talented administrators. He frustrates students within the departments. He hurts the ability of the school to recruit talented students and faculty members. He announces to the campus that the Butler Way, the ideals for which the school and everyone at it stands, mean nothing.”

The university has deemed statements like this to be libelous and in January filed a libel and defamation lawsuit against “Soodo Nym,” the pseudonym used by Zimmerman on the anonymous blog.”

The Friends of Jess Zimmerman started a petition that calls for the Butler administration to issue apologies to the Butler community for filing the "John Doe" lawsuit and to me for aggressively using that lawsuit to threaten me over the last five months. The petition is located at www.ipetitions.com/petition/butler.

The Friends of Jess Zimmerman also maintains a Facebook group (Friends of Jess Zimmerman) that has more than 800 members. Please also feel free to join that group.