It’s election season once again, so President Obama is coming back to Madison for a large campaign event right smack dab in the middle of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Thursday afternoon. Given the amount of security required to host a Presidential visit (regardless of the purpose), it is not surprising that all of the buildings on Bascom Hill will be closed on Thursday. This campaign rally will require all classes in affected buildings to be moved—many of them will likely be cancelled despite this being midterm exam season for undergraduates.
I am always happy to have politicians come to campus to ask for the community’s support, but two things just grate me the wrong way about the visit. The first thing is the timing. When Obama came to campus the previous two times (February 2008 and September 2010), his events were scheduled later in the day. While classes were still moved from the immediate area of Bascom Hill for the 2010 visit, the rally was held later in the afternoon so more classes could be held. Ann Althouse, prominent blogger and faculty member in the UW Law School, isn’t too happy about the class disruption:
“Nice for the campaign, but positioned to maximize disruption of regular classes. Is that a bug or a feature? If there are no classes and it’s a class day, students are around and they are free to attend. Classes are being cancelled to supply the photogenic crowd for the President?”
Badgers are a pretty photogenic lot. (It’s hard to be humble when you’re from Wisconsin, after all.) But starting the event at, say, 4 PM instead of noon would allow for a much more normal day of classes. For reference, recall the hubbub about having a night football game on the Thursday before classes even started. I’m guessing that the folks complaining about a night football game aren’t complaining about the President’s campaign stop—I’m happy to complain about both.
I have one more gripe about the rally: in order to get into the event in the heart of campus, people have to register with the President’s campaign team. I don’t have any problems with metal detectors and tight security (there are plenty of crazy people out there), but requiring registration with an aggressive political campaign team to attend an on-campus event does not support sifting and winnowing. (To be fair, Romney’s folks do the same thing to harvest voter information—but he is never coming to far-left Madison.)
I have taken steps to cancel or postpone all of my events on campus on Thursday and will likely listen to the rally online. Hopefully, all of the people displaced by the campaign event can have a fairly normal day of work if they so choose.
Robert Kelchen 