Public university pulls 'pop-up' credit offered to students who protest Sen. Susan Collins
A public university in Maine is in hot water for offering a tuition-free “pop-up” credit to enrolled students who would be bussed to Washington, D.C., to urge Sen. Susan Collins to oppose confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
In an email posted by the Maine Republic Party on Facebook, two employees at the University of Southern Maine discussed a credit offering for what was being called an “Engaged Citizenship” course. The requirements for the credit were to take a bus overnight to Washington and join activists to meet with Sen. Collins. The mission of the excursion was to “Rally up around the FBI investigation of the Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh.”
Further information detailed the plans for transportation, which was said to be provided by the university, and included a link to a Google survey where students would provide an idea of who they were and how they were planning on getting involved. Attendees were asked to check options such as “I am a survivor and willing to share my story to the public (Livestream, rally, press)” and “I am interested in civil disobedience/willing to get arrested (Bail is about $50/arrest. Please have a plan.)”
Another conversation revealed that a student who called to ask if he could attend to protest in support of confirming Kavanaugh was allegedly told that he would need to find his own method of transportation.
The University of Southern Maine provided Yahoo Lifestyle with a statement from the university’s President Glenn Cummings, confirming that the pop-up credit offering was “hastily arranged, without the knowledge of the Provost or myself.”
“As soon as the Provost and I were apprised of the course, we immediately pulled the one-credit offering. We also made sure that no USM monies were being used for the trip,” the statement continues. “University policy makes it absolutely clear that our public, taxpayer-funded institutions must be non-partisan in terms of political activity and institutionally impartial in all political, religious and social matters that are unrelated to our universities’ core mission of education, research, and public service.”
On Wednesday, Alyssa Milano provided a look into what the protest in Sen. Collins’s office ended up looking like, with a video of the actress telling her own #MeToo story among a group of women.
I told one of my #MeToo stories in @SenatorCollins office. I was with her constituent. We asked to speak with Senator Collins. She hid.
Here’s my story through a “human microphone”.
I’ll never know if she heard me.
*Trigger Warning* pic.twitter.com/i7awexXLfL
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 4, 2018
According to Milano’s tweet, the senator ended up hiding during the event.
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