Posted on 08/29/2012 8:00:40 PM PDT by tang-soo
Home Ohio Updated: OSU Professor Urges Colleagues to Bring Obama Campaign Into Class; OSU Investigating
Updated: OSU Professor Urges Colleagues to Bring Obama Campaign Into Class; OSU Investigating
Published on August 29, 2012 by Justin in Ohio
Update: A good friend of mine and WTVN host Dirk Thompson shares this e-mail response from the University:
Subject: RE: OSU Prof breaking rules? From: “McGuire, Jenna” To: Dirk Thompson
Mr. Thompson:
President Gee is currently in Board meetings, and asked that I respond to you directly. We appreciate your bringing this to our attention.
Please know that upon learning of this incident, President Gee immediately alerted the University Provost. He and his staff are investigating and will respond accordingly.
Again, thank you for contacting us. Please know that we are taking this issue seriously.
Jenna McGuire Writer, Office of the President The Ohio State University
In an e-mail to fellow professors at Ohio State, filled with cliches about voter suppression and just how important it is that they work with the Obama campaign, Ohio State University English professor Brian McHale urged his fellow educators to bring in representatives from the Obama campaign to register voters and talk about volunteering, if the professor is comfortable. Note that this is an English professor, not a political science teacher looking to expand his students’ viewpoints on the election, or anything like that. The Chronicle of Higher Education warns of these tricks and shares the e-mail:
Colleagues,
I’ve been in touch with a couple of campus organizers for the Obama campaign, who have asked me to pass along to all of you a request for access to your classes in the next few weeks. If you were willing, they would send along a volunteer to make a pitch to your students about registering to vote. This would involve five minutes or less of class time, at the beginning or end of class (whichever you preferred), and the volunteer could make him/herself available after the end of class to sign up students who wanted to register on the spot.
If you were willing, 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. If you weren’t comfortable with this, however, you’d only need to say so, and the volunteer would limit his/her presentation to voter registration, and leave the recruitment pitch out; it would be your call.
I don’t need to tell you that voter registration is absolutely the key to this election, not least of all in the state of Ohio. (I don’t need to tell you this because it has been made so manifestly plain by those who have been doing their best in several states, including ours, to limit access to the polls in various ways.) I hope you can see your way to helping bump up the voter registration and turnout among this key constituency—our students.
The easiest way to arrange for volunteers to visit your classrooms is to contact Natalie Raps or Matt Caffrey directly: [address removed] and [address removed]. Alternatively, you could contact me, and I’ll put you in touch with them. Either way, please do it!
Democracy: love it or lose it.
Let me just note a couple things before I get to the crux of this problem. First off, no one is limiting access to the polls, and voters today in most states have considerably more options, including voting early and by mail in Ohio for any reason whatsoever, than they did even 8 years ago. Second, note how overtly partisan his language is, even outside of the fact that he’s directly coordinating with the Obama campaign. He wants to drive out “this key constituency”, which he knows leans toward the President. This isn’t encouraging civic engagement, it’s trying to “bump up” his candidate. Finally, the last line with the ”love it or lose it” is tired and over-the-top. If Mitt Romney wins we lose Democracy? Give me a break.
Now on to the main point; the direct coordination with Obama campaign staffers (both Raps and Caffrey are on re-election payroll) and the implicit solicitation of student votes in the classroom. I’ve seen this stuff happen before. The people are brought in, the class is asked to “be respectful”, which essentially means that conservative students aren’t allowed to mess with their pitch (in my experience in most classrooms one or two emboldened conservatives tend to dominate the discussions, which isn’t surprising since we’re fiercely independent). Any effort to bring in a similar representative from a rival campaign is normally shot down, though not always.
Also, I find it hilarious Mr. Caffrey is one of the Obama campaign representatives, since he himself is not a big fan of free speech on campus. I distinctly remember a night during my freshman year at Ohio State, where me and some conservative friends “chalked” an anti-Obama message on campus. It was an “Obamunism” logo, which isn’t offensive enough to be branded hate speech at Ohio State. We finished around 11:30 PM, went to get food, and came back between midnight and 1 AM. Caffrey, along with some others, had buckets and jugs of water and were removing the message before any students could get to it. Meanwhile, our side allowed an anti-McCain message featuring the Michigan “M” (which is practically considered hate speech at OSU) stand on campus for months. Tolerance!
Ohio State students should reject the idea of partisan campaigning in the classroom, and any conservatives in the room when this happens should make forceful arguments against registering with the Obama campaign, who is free under the law (unsure if they do) to collect parts of that information for campaign purposes. Offer an alternative, like registering with the Franklin County Board of Elections, a short High St. bus ride away. Stand up and fight for your classrooms; if you don’t the liberals will take them.
Tags: Barack Obama, Brian McHale, higher education, Matt Caffrey, OSU, The Ohio State University
This is my alma mater and I’m embarrassed.
I’m sure this has done before. They just got caught this time.
me too. B.S.E.E. 1981. However, it was an OSU student that made the initial report.
You know what bugs me about this? An English professor at a Big 10 University 1) Thinks this is a good idea, and 2) Thinks everybody he works with also think this is a good idea.
Well as an Alum I would let them here from you.
If OSU is like Univesity of Florida you must get a ton of request for money from them.
There are worse universities than this. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
“This is my alma mater and I’m embarrassed.”
Ditto
I have an MS and Ph.D. from there and it is bad, but not limited there. I’ve had lively debates where I taught (at another Big Ten university) and they cannot believe I’m a conservative economist. However, if you ever try to engage them in reasoned debate, when they finally see they are boxed in, they say: “Well...that may be, but I don’t believe it!” and they get up and leave. It’s like trying to reason with bean bag.
“Well as an Alum I would let them here from you.
If OSU is like Univesity of Florida you must get a ton of request for money from them.”
OSU Alumni contact email:
customerservice@ohiostatealumni.org
Why can’t you just empathize with the bean bag. You conservatives have no feelings, nor do you even care about the bean bag. You are just bean bag haters and bean bagphobs. /s
Hello classmate! BA Mus/Perf 1981
I came back for my DMA in piano and conducting in 1983 after an MMA in conducting at Eastman.......
Studied under Richard Tetley-Kardos, Sylvia Zaremba, and Earl Wild, who taught me how to really play Liszt.
Isn’t OSU where they filmed Animal House?
Supposedly based on a Dartmouth fraternity, not sure where it was filmed
Supposedly based on a Dartmouth fraternity, not sure where it was filmed
Some college out in Oregon. Can’t remember the name.
Isn’t OSU where they filmed Animal House?
FYI...
University of Oregon, Eugene campus
When they call for money tell them "no, until this fool is gone". The academy needs to be purged of these comfortable, cosseted bolsheviks and alumni money is the best leverage we've got.
Good God Almighty - do NOT be “embarrassed” be damn well incensed and be on the phone to the OSU President’s office day and night until they do something about this flagrant usurpation of the right to an unbiased educational a STATE SUPPORTED facility.
“emabrassed”??????
What will it take to make you RESPOND??????
Guess you’re just like all those Pedophile State U alums who just were/are “embarrassed” at the shenanigans perpetrated by that bunch of perverts.
In this case, it’s not the bodies of young people that are being violated, it’s their MINDS - but the results may be even worse, since many will go on to careers consisting of controlling the rest of us.
Pray tell, precisely WHAT will it take of YOU to scream out “I’m mad as hell and I’m NOT going to take it ANYMORE”????????
Very cool. then we probably have a lot of common friends. I was in the OSU marching band from 76-80. Played alto horn in S-Row. And I know Dr. Droste received his masters from Eastman.
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