The College Fix

It’s no secret that universities are plagued by liberal political bias, but did you know that some professors are turning their classrooms into recruitment stops for the Obama campaign? And did you know that the Obama campaign is actively promoting this brazen politicization of the classroom?

A new report reveals that the Obama campaign is contacting professors and asking for permission to visit classes and campaign directly in front of students. And some Obama-loving professors, apparently, are happily going along with this scheme.

Peter Wood of the National Association of Scholars reports that Ohio State University faculty received an email this week, asking them to consider inviting an Obama campaign operative to speak to their classes this fall. “If you were willing,” the memo said, [the Obama campaign] would send along a volunteer to make a pitch to your students about registering to vote… and the volunteer could make him/herself available after the end of class to sign up students who wanted to register on the spot.”

But these Obama operatives are doing more than just encouraging voter registration. They are actually recruiting volunteers for the Obama campaign. “If you were willing,” the memo continued, “the volunteers could also take a couple of extra minutes to see whether they could interest any of your students in volunteering for the Obama campaign themselves.”

What do you think? Is it appropriate for professors to allow the academic independence of their classrooms to be compromised by inviting a political campaign to recruit students in the classroom setting? And do you think it’s ethical for the Obama campaign to seek to turn a taxpayer-subsidized class at a public university into a partisan political rally?

I don’t either.

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