In response to an Illinois law prohibiting state employees from engaging in political activity, a group of students and faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign held a campus rally on Thursday in support of the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, the Chicago Tribune reported this morning.

In addition to a ban on faculty members’ wearing campaign buttons or T-shirts, the governor’s Office of Executive Inspector General told the Tribune that the law may forbid students to participate in political rallies. “Anything that benefits a political campaign is prohibited on state property,” said Gilbert Jimenez, deputy inspector general.

The controversy began last week, when the American Association of University Professors issued statements calling for the withdrawal of a set of guidelines on political activity that the university had sent by e-mail to all of its employees.

University officials have defended their actions, saying that they simply wanted to make employees aware of the state law and had no intention of enforcing it on the campus.

“The purpose was to say, ‘Keep these provisions in mind, exercise common sense, and everything will be fine,’” a university spokesman, Tom Hardy, told the Tribune.

The university has said the five-year-old law is intended to prevent state workers from campaigning on state time or with state resources. —Caitlin Moran