Tuition is too damn high.
Via Press Herald:
A retired University of Southern Maine professor has been barred from teaching in the UMaine system after she offered students a “pop-up” course for credit to take a bus to Washington, D.C., with demonstrators urging Sen. Susan Collins to oppose confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
“We are embarrassed by and apologize for the rogue behavior of a former colleague,” USM President Glenn Cummings said in a statement Wednesday. “In response to her inappropriate actions, Dr. Susan Feiner has been notified that she is now barred from teaching at the University of Southern Maine, a prohibition that will be upheld by the other campuses of the University of Maine System as well.”
Cummings said Feiner promoted “an unauthorized class that advanced her personal political agenda.”
No campus resources were used to support the “one-sided political activism,” he said.
News of the trip prompted complaints that tax dollars were used for partisan activity and the Maine Republican Party blasted the idea on its Facebook page. University officials – Cummings and system Chancellor James Page – immediately issued statements denouncing the idea and saying it violated university policy on remaining non-partisan and politically neutral.
Most universities have policies around political speech, which has been debated fiercely in recent years as demonstrations or speakers on campuses across the country have created political flash-points or led to violence. Recent examples include the chaos that erupted at the University of California, Berkeley, in February 2017, when protesters set fires, smashed windows, hurled explosives at police and ultimately achieved their goal of canceling an appearance by right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos. Closer to home, 200 people demonstrated at the USM campus in Portland in July 2017 to protest a lecture on immigration by Maine Rep. Lawrence Lockman of Amherst, a Republican lawmaker known for making divisive and polarizing statements.
On Wednesday, Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage praised USM’s move to ban Feiner.
“President Glenn Cummings and the University of Maine System showed true integrity in dealing with this situation swiftly. We are very pleased to see immediate, and forceful, action taken on this matter,” Savage said in an email. “I personally extend my gratitude to President Cummings and those involved in addressing this situation.”
In a text message Wednesday, Feiner said she did not plan to challenge the university’s decision: “Why? I’m retired. It’s USM’s loss,” she wrote, adding that she was “disappointed” and that “hundreds of thousands (of dollars) in planned giving is gone.”