It appears that the Obama team at Marquette is trying to get into classrooms on election day to pitch their candidate, with their liberal professors’ backing them up. One professor however, was none too happy and passed it on to us.
I sincerely hope that the Obama campaign is not allowed into classrooms today and, if they are, they should be accompanied by McCain representatives as well.
Any student eye witnesses out there?
Here is the email, the blue text is from the professor who sent it to me.
“I thought it might interest you that the Obama campaign tries to sneak into the classrooms by sending this email to all MU faculty (not by listserv though!).
The administration should meanwhile be aware of it.
From: Vertin, Marecca
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 09:04
Marquette Faculty:
Election time is here and many students at Marquette are exercising their right to vote for the first time on Tuesday. This will – no matter what – be a historical election. We want to make sure that all students are reminded that they can still vote (even if they haven’t registered), know where their polling locations are, and are aware of how important it is to have their voices heard on Monday or Tuesday.
If you would be okay with a student stopping in the first minute (or 30 seconds!) of your class time Monday or Tuesday morning to go over this, please let us know when and where we could find you. We would additionally like to let students know that if they’d like to help out Monday or Tuesday, they can stop at the Obama Campaign student headquarters at the St. James Court apartments near Straz Hall. However, if you’d like us to leave the second part off - that’s great too. The important part is that everyone votes.
Regardless, please remind students of the importance of this upcoming election and make a plug for it in class. Whether we realize it or not, we are looking to professors for guidance everyday, and if you take a moment to address the topic, we will listen!
Thank you so much for your time, and we hope to hear from you –
Marquette‘s Obama Team”
Marecca Vertin, the sender of the email is an Obama Intern and former intern at Human Rights Watch:
“Marecca Vertin lost interest in politics in high school. She had once dreamed of becoming a campaign manager, but she drifted away from it as a teenager. It wasn’t until Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) announced his candidacy that the College of Arts & Science sophomore got involved again.
Now Vertin serves as an intern at Obama’s Wisconsin campaign headquarters, where she spends her time making phone calls and rallying voters. Vertin said she can’t help but notice the large number of young people who turn out to support the Illinois senator. ”
Maybe sneaking into classrooms across campus will help her turn out votes too, never mind the ethics issues, balance isn’t necessary in the academic environment.
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Sneaking in might be a touch misleading given the e-mail asking for permission…
Those are the professors words. If they had been upfront about it they would have asked to do it through the administration, not in a direct blast email.
Yeah? Fairness doctrine? Someone to come in and talk to them about Obama’s abortion position and Church teaching? Or would that be too intrusive at this “Catholic” university?
[...] Brandon Hanek: Here is the email, the blue text is from the professor who sent it to me. “I thought it might interest you that the Obama campaign tries to sneak into the classrooms by sending this email to all MU faculty (not by listserv though!). [...]
She clearly stated that the pro-Obama component of the message could be left out if the professor so desired, or that the professors could turn down the offer completely. There would have been no attempt to “sneak into the classrooms,” as it was completely at professor”s discretions.
What exactly is wrong with trying to answer student’s questions about the fairly confusing election process? The McCain campaign could have sent a similar e-mail if they had any students with a modicum of devotion to their candidate. In the end it was up to the professors to decide whether or not they wanted to encourage their students to vote, apparently the professor who forwarded this e-mail to you would rather students didn’t exercise their constitutional right.
It’s unfortunate that there weren’t any McCain representatives out there organized enough to want to accompany them. They were pretty creative and motivated this year. I don’t think it’s the Obama campaign’s job to organize McCain’s volunteers, too. We could have asked if we wanted to. Instead we let Obama’s face infiltrate campus on the eve of the 4th virtually uncontested. It would have been nice to see an exciting debate on election day, with a larger group of students involved.