This week I spoke at the Lou Frey Institute on Constitutional Day at the University of Central Florida and students were particularly interested in the controversy surrounding Professor Sharon Sweet at Brevard Community College (BCC) in Florida. Sweet, 58, is now on leave after she allegedly told students to sign a pledge that reads: “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.”
Sweet reportedly took the pledge from GottaVote.org, a website funded by the Obama campaign.
Florida law states in Section 104.31, of Title IX in chapter 104, states that “no officer or employee of the state… shall… use his or her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with an election or nomination of officer or influencing another person’s vote or affecting the result thereof.”
The School has suspended Sweet without pay from her $40,000 a year job teaching college algebra and math (which also shows the shockingly low pay for college professors in the state). Sweet is notably not listed with the faculty. If the allegations are true, the pledge forms should be treated as an extremely serious breach for an academic. Not only does it violate Florida law, it clearly destroys basic requirements for a learning environment, particularly for non-Obama supporters.
I’d heard about this a couple days ago (the righties spread this stuff fast)
So I checked Gottavote.org then, and again just now. There wasn’t then and there isn’t now any form of pledge I could see. Maybe it’s on the secret page only the closest members may see/
Whether she passed around a pledge is one thing, but it’s iffy to me when an Obama organization is tossed in the mix. And if that part is bogus, I question the rest of the accusation.
It’s still (somewhat) innocent until PROVEN guilty.
More need to be elicited ….. So what if she’s pushing her agenda…. Read the comments here….. Is or are the elected officials exempt from equal enforcement of the laws…..
Ah, Brevard County! It was our home while we lived in Florida. When I refer to Florida as a toilet with palm trees I think of Brevard as the P-trap at the bottom of the bowl.
If ignorance is bliss Brevard, not Orland, is the happiest place on earth. 2nd worst paid teachers in the country (good people tend to not stay or to get burned out), lowest graduation rate in the country, lowest rate of HS grads going on to college, 50% of all grads (public and private) need remedial English and math during their Freshman year at college.
My guess is she had to read the pledge to them, explain the big words and what an election is.
lottakatz 1, September 19, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Dredd, yea, I saw that. There is no depth the Republicans in Congress will not plumb.
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Tru dat …
Dredd, yea, I saw that. There is no depth the Republicans in Congress will not plumb.
Ridiculous. But it is Florida, Jake.
Perhaps the teacher was a Veteran who knows who cares more about Veterans this year: GOP Blocks Veterans Jobs Bill
Community colleges have different hiring standards. It’s not unusual to have “professors” with minimal higher education, e.g. a teacher of a programming language who spent some years as a programmer, probably had a bachelor’s degree but not in programming and didn’t know why anyone would use bit level instructions; a teacher of blueprint reading and autocad who spent some years as a subcontractor who really didn’t teach autocad. He gave assignments in the instruction book and access to the program. We were left to figure it out ourselves. Examples are from Community Colleges in different states.
I approve and support all that has been said. 🙂
As to living wage, I trust she had other employment as this was hopefully only part time. They dressed her and themselves up by calling her professor.
Never a political word was spoken in my college years. Maybe all tech schools are the same. Vote? What’s that. But that was years ago. Before tha age of majority became 18.
Smart people do and say stupid things. This isn’t about intelligence, it’s about ethics.
Once upon a time there will … there will:
(Sickology vs. Penology). Sometimes one simply has to become a professor and sometimes not. 😉
Mark me in the Blouise/Mike/Smom column.
If true, this is simply unacceptable behavior in an academic environment.
Besides, it’s a school. By its very nature, there are smart people there. I seem to recall some recent laments by Santorum about smart people not being attracted to the GOP. If that is indeed the case, this is a lot like hunting in a baited field. Anti-competitive practices are inherently unfair in politics as well as business.
What Blouise, Mike S. and Swarthmore Mom said. If true, the professor should be disciplined according to university policy and state law. I, too was shocked to read how little she is paid.
Encouraging students to vote is good citizenship. Telling students for whom they should vote is not. I fully support the view Prof Turley expressed when he wrote:
“If the allegations are true, the pledge forms should be treated as an extremely serious breach for an academic. Not only does it violate Florida law, it clearly destroys basic requirements for a learning environment, particularly for non-Obama supporters.” with the caveat that it destroys the basic requirements for a learning environment for any student, even those inclined to support Obama.
This post, combined w/ the prior Ca. professor one, makes for a depressing morning. Is it too early for a shot and beer?
Many University Professors push their political point of view and many Universities are known for their partisan professorships, both on the Left and on the Right. How far do you think a Socialist Economics student would get at the University of Chicago? When I was working on my Masters at Columbia, I had a Professor Richard Cloward, whose book “Regulating the Poor” had led to the disastrous “Welfare Strikes” in the late 60’s. since I was working in Welfare at the time and had worked with the group that organized the strikes, via my Union, I had inside knowledge of the mistake that these strikes made and how they hurt the Welfare client. In class I confronted Cloward about this
in 1978 and he was none to pleased. At Columbia I was mostly an “A” student which was how I won my full scholarship, but not surprisingly I only got a C+ in Cloward’s course.
That said, if true, then I think the Professor deserves at least a reprimand, but
proof is required.
There seems to be no dispute amongst media reports that Professor Sharon Sweet of Brevard Community College asked the students in her class to sign a pledge that said “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.” Sweet has since asked for, and been granted, an unpaid leave of absence.
Here’s what’s in dispute: did she ask them to sign it, suggest that they sign it, require them to sign it, or order them to sign it?
It depends on who’s reporting.
Florida today says “urged.” Channel 13 says “solicited” and “urged.” Human Events says “urged.”
But Pat Dollard says “required” and “told,” and The Blaze says “forcing” and “required.”
Do Dollard and The Blaze have some inside source feeding them evidence that Sweet used coercion rather than inappropriate, unprofessional, and illegal persuasion? Are they making a hidden argument that a community college professor’s suggestion in this context is inherently so coercive as to justify “forced” and “required”?
Or was the reported story just not sufficiently cinematic for them? Are they just full of shit?
I hate campus electioneering towards captive audiences. (And it’s worse when it’s electioneering for very stupid people, like “vote straight ticket.”) If Sharon Sweet did this during class, they should fire her ass forthwith.
But why make stuff up to make it sound worse?
It’s the silly season. Bear in mind — 95% of what you hear that includes the word “Obama” or “Romney” is bullshit. Popehat
Maybe she is an ACORN member The community college students better get out and vote for Obama. They are the 47%,
This might be a made-up story. It sounds too stupid to be true. And in Florida if something sounds too stupid to be true, it has to be stooooooooooPID!
Deplorable.
what might be very damaging to her case would have been what she would have done to anyone who refused to sign the pledge.
I know this might be a rather limited example but it is incidents such as this that make me glad I am not a college student because I know I would not be able to keep my mouth shut when behaviors such as this are displayed by faculty members.
When my wife changed careers and went into nursing school at colleges here it was nearly a monthly event where one of her instructors would pull some stunt like this. Several instructors openly preached a partucular political view and were obviously dismissive of any student who disagreed. My wife was quite upset about this and I told her to report the teacher to the administration but she feared her grades would be affected if she did.
The worst example came when my wife befriended another woman who was either a Russian or Ukranian immigrant who was taking general studies classes. The friend elected to enter the nursing program and my wife encouranged her. Later, the friend told my wife the head of the nursing program met with her to review her application. The faculty member told the woman her “accent was too thick” and due to this she was unsuited to be a nurse and denied her entry into the program.
When I heard this I was outraged. But my wife again was afraid to report this despite that it was clearly a civil rights violation and a liability for the school. Let’s just say this faculty member is no longer working for the school. And that’s all I have to say about that.