July 22, 2010

At Central Michigan U., Professors Fight to Protect Their Political Ambitions

They say administrators shouldn't have the power to decide who gets to seek office

Susan Tusa for The Chronicle

James P. Hill, leader of an effort by the Central Michigan U. Faculty Association to restore faculty members' right to hold public office, visits the local City Hall, in Mount Pleasant.

By Peter Schmidt

Faculty leaders at Central Michigan University have rebelled against a policy that, they say, gives administrators arbitrary power to forbid them to seek public office.

"This is an important area of academic freedom for faculty and staff, and it should be treated as a fundamental liberty, and not something that is dispensable," said James P. Hill, a professor of political science who is leading the Central Michigan University Faculty Association's bargaining team on the