A taxpayer-subsidized university in Maine has apologized after a professor created a last minute “pop-up course” for college credit that involved traveling to D.C. to lobby Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to vote against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Last week Susan Feiner, a retired professor from the University of Southern Maine, found a way to bypass the official USM review protocol for new courses, and hastily arranged a one-credit course on “Engaged Citizenship” that consisted of a two-day bus trip to Washington, where students would “join activists, political action groups, and social justice groups to meet with Senator Collins (R-ME)” and “rally up around the FBI investigation of the Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh.”
After the course was publicly advertised using the official University of Southern Maine email system, many citizens expressed their outrage at the partisan nature of the course, and the Maine Republican Party posted a screenshot of the email to their official Facebook page.
[Also read: 302 arrested in anti-Kavanaugh protests at Senate buildings]
According to a statement from university President Glenn Cummings, the actions taken by the professor were done without school approval, and completely unacceptable for a publicly funded university.
“Dr. Feiner is technically retired,” said Cummings. “Dr. Feiner acted in a very rogue manner. Her behavior was inappropriate. It was unacceptable.”
Cummings went on to stress that the university has a policy of being completely nonpartisan on political matters since they are a taxpayer-funded institution.
“University policy makes it absolutely clear that our public, taxpayer-funded institutions must be nonpartisan in terms of political activity and institutionally impartial in all political, religious, and social matters that are unrelated to our universities’ core mission of education, research and public service,” stated Cummings.
Collins eventually voted in favor of Kavanaugh’s nomination. Her vote proved crucial, with Kavanaugh narrowly earning confirmation in a 50-48 vote.
