Should Candidates Be Forced To Quit Their Job?
Posted by David on Oct 30th, 2007
2007
Oct 30
It sounds like a stupid question, doesn’t it? Who would be so cocky that they’d quit their job before they were even elected?
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A politically conservative student armed with a video camera and a Web site is trying to force a Democratic congressional candidate out of his teaching job at Central Michigan University.
Dennis Lennox, a 23-year-old junior, has posted videos on YouTube of himself questioning assistant professor Gary Peters about campaigning for office while holding a prestigious position at the university.
Now if the man was in office or a news reporter it’d be a different story, until then this is just partisan politics.
Source: Student hounds prof running for Congress - Yahoo! News
October 30th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I went off and did some research before making comments. I wanted to be sure of the facts first. There is some confusion over whether Peters’ job is full time or part time, Peters says it’s part time, Lennox quotes the actual contract to say it’s full time.
First, the taxpayers of Michigan are (apparently) entitled to Peters’ “primary commitment” in return for his $65k salary plus whatever perks go along with the job.
The question then becomes if he can maintain that commitment while performing his “day job” and also, is there a conflict of interest?
I don’t believe anyone outside of Mr. Peters or his immediate co-workers can answer the first question, but to understand the conflict of interest question, you have to know what he teaches. If he was a calculus professor, it’s hard to see where a conflict would come up. But it turns out he is an endowed chair (which sounds strange) of American Government. It would seem that if a student voiced an opinion in class opposite his political views, Peters would be in a position to negatively affect the student’s grade.
I am VERY concerned about a lot of liberal professors in the academia. Some need to leave their political views out. I fully agree that someone should be able to keep their day job and run for an office, as long as there is no conflict of interest and they keep doing their day job.
As a final note, conflict of interest is an area where I am especially sensitive. I don’t think I think I’ve ever said on this (or my own) blog who I work for or what I do. I’m also very careful to make sure I give full time to my employer and “primary commitment” as well.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I agree there’s a problem if the run is preventing this guy from doing his job right there’s a problem. If that were the case though, I think it would have came out already. This kid has every right to keep an eye on this professor, but this sounds like harassment.
My opinion would be the same even if the parties were switched.