Before break, four professors here at the University of Wisconsin knowingly engaged in an illegal activity. That’s right, our leaders, our role models, and those who are supposed to be molding us students into good citizens, have trampled the law under their feet.

In a small department meeting with several professors and an administrative assistant, one of the professors circulated a petition to recall Gov. Scott Walker. The professor acknowledged that she knew she was not supposed to do this, but because it was such a small group she thought it would be okay. None of the professors objected, but rather were completely excited with an opportunity to stick it to Walker. It was not okay.

It was highly illegal to circulate a political petition in a government building while these professors were supposed to be working. But more concerning was that this act put the administrative assistant in a very uncomfortable and vulnerable position. The assistant supports Walker and has no desire to recall a governor for taking bold steps to reform large problems. Walker has balanced the state budget in a single biennial budget, given the assistant the freedom to opt out of paying union dues, collapsed WEAC’s insurance scheme and done a host of other reforms she supports.

What makes this act so infuriating is not just the brazen illegal actions, but that the administrative assistant was put in such a horrible position. In a sense, the petition took on the form of a loyalty oath: Are you with us or against us?

These professors are the assistant’s superiors. They rank above her, they make more money than she does and they have power over her career. In her position, she was not about to call these professors out. Still, she was faced with the realization that if she did not sign the petition, they would all be aware of her political position.

She knows first hand the type of hostility these professors hold toward Walker. Almost daily, they are in the department office discussing openly how despicable he is. Yet, she could not betray her conscience and sign the petition. She refused and got up and left the room. She failed the loyalty test, and now she is potentially set up to be in a very uncomfortable and hostile situation. Precisely because of situations like this, political activities are not allowed in government workplaces.

Apart from the problems the administrative assistant will now have to deal with, this event illustrates issues that exist on our campus.

There is no doubt that the predominant political persuasion on campus is left leaning, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. People are entitled to hold whatever political views their conscience requires, and for a small percentage, believe it or not, that view happens to support Walker.

For a professor to arrogantly assume that this small group shared her views showcases the type of thinking that is becoming an increasing problem on our campus. A thinking that says, “If you don’t think like me, there is something abnormal about you.” Can she rightly assume that her view is so right that everyone in the room believes the same as her?

Acts like these do not foster freethinking, and are not in alignment with some of the main tenets of this university. According to political science professor Donald Downs, cases like these show a lack of intellectual and political diversity on campus that is a hindrance to liberal education.

Madison prides itself in being a liberal arts college, a bastion of critical thinking, a university given to the task of sifting and winnowing for the truth. All of us, students and staff, should be allowed, even encouraged, to think individually. We must never allow a view to go unquestioned; no view can be placed as an untouchable orthodoxy.

Josh Turner ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science.