Can you imagine one of your professors dressing up as President Obama for a lecture on executive overreach?
Probably not. But dressing up as former Vice President Dick Cheney is fair game.
A political science professor dressed in an orange shooters vest and a Cheney mask this Halloween for his lecture on the presidency, Campus Reform reports.
John Gruhl, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, donned the costume and pretended to shoot around the classroom as his students asked to photograph him. Gruhl then proceeded to give a rather simplified history of the Bush presidency.
“He was the driving force behind some of the biggest mistakes of the Bush administration,” Gruhl told his class. “The war in Iraq, the war on terrorism policies, … gave us a black eye around the world, … wiretapping even of Americans. He was also the driving force behind the Bush tax cuts, which proved to be the single biggest factor in the government’s deficit and to this day (is) a huge factor.”
Gruhl has positive reviews on ratemyprofessors.com. But, alas, no chili pepper.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5tf2UAjlGo&w=560&h=315]
A freshman political science major told Campus Reform he felt as though Gruhl “had overstepped his boundaries as an educator” with the stunt.
Students should be willing to accept criticism of their political viewpoints, and be able to laugh a little at themselves. But our college campuses would foster more diverse and valuable debate if for every Cheney-mask donning professor, a conservative speaker was not shouted down or pressured out.
Students would benefit from being equal opportunity insulters.
