Amidst a charged political atmosphere that permeates all of campus during an election year, professors and faculty at UW-Madison are being urged to leave the buttons, banners and bumper stickers at home.
In a memo to be e-mailed today to all university employees, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor for Legal and Executive Affairs Melanie Newby reiterated the importance of adhering to state law while on campus.
State workers, including university professors, cannot legally engage in political campaigning while on the job. This should include, she said, wearing or displaying partisan materials.
While displaying partisan support in public places remains largely an individual decision, the Legal Services department wants to remind faculty to use their personal judgement in other settings.
\We are attempting to balance people's rights to engage in political speech with their responsibilities in the workplace. We are asking that people be sensitive to that balance,"" said Casey Nagy, special assistant to the chancellor.
Most faculty members seem to understand the free speech distinction at work. Remaining non-partisan as a state worker in a lecture hall is separate from taking part in a political rally on Library Mall.
UW-Madison math Professor Anatole Beck agrees with the basic premise of the memo. ""If I want to wear a campaign button on the street, I have the same right as anyone else. But there I don't have the captive audience I do in the classroom,"" Beck said.
""They're not saying don't discuss political aspects in the classroom, don't air different views. It's just another application of a long-standing guideline,"" said UW-Madison journalism Professor Robert Drechsel.
Nagy added, ""Academic freedom here is highly prized. It has nothing to do with what the professors can talk about as a legitimate source of course content.""
""I don't think anyone can stop professors from saying what they think,"" said Barry Orton, a UW-Madison professor of telecommunications. ""The buttons and the signage represent not so much what people think as the atmosphere in university facilities.""
Orton points out the distinction in the type of signage allowed: ""On my office door there is a political sign that I am not going to take down, no matter [what] the university says. It says 'Tony Soprano for President,' and I'm going to keep it.""
The timing of the memo is significant. In a swing state such as Wisconsin, the Madison campus represents an important enclave of political campaigning and propaganda for both major parties in the months to come.
""It's certainly a politically charged environment,"" Nagy said. ""People have strong feelings on a variety of sides, and that will only increase as we come closer to the election. Now is the best time to realize the necessary balance.\
