09-01-2012, 10:41 PM
cbelt3 wrote:
The department chair emailed his instructors to campaign with the Obama campaign.
I do think it's much ado about nothing, but it was worth a short discussion of educating teens about voting without directing them How to vote.
No, the chair emailed them and asked them to consider allowing the reps from the Obama to make a presentation about registering to vote. And also to consider allowing them to make an additional pitch about volunteering for the campaign. Now an argument is made that would be intimidating to non-tenured faculty, but that is weak.
Now, I don't know about that school, but at the college level many department chairs are voluntary positions or voted on by members of the department. Some even have it as a rotating position.
As to the writer, Peter Wood is the executive director of the National Association of Scholars which is a known conservative organization. He is known to exaggerate instances that he claims show the "liberal" slant of higher education. As an example, he makes a big deal in the linked "Memorandum" article that he "blew the whistle" on a similar instance at UMass Amherst in 2008. Facts are in that case that it was a single instructor, who was non-faculty as a chaplain at the university, who proposed to give credits for working for a campaign. The credits had originally been allowed for community service. The university denied the change when it was proposed, it did not take Peter Wood "exposing" it.