Students gathered Thursday to hear one of the most significant political figures of our time speak in the heart of their campus: the first African-American president in the White House, the second visit from a sitting president in two years since President Harry Truman in 1950, all coming together on Bascom HIll. President Barack Obama’s second visit will surely be remembered. 

While it is an undeniably historic occurrence, political science professor Kenneth Mayer has raised significant concerns about how the event was handled by the University of Wisconsin. 

The first notable objection made is that Obama’s visit to campus was disruptive to the university’s mission of education. There is some truth to that statement, but the fact he’s the POTUS outweighs this objection. The university should have tried to avoid shutting down buildings, and it could have held the event in the evening when most classes were out. Less disruptive alternatives definitely existed that the organizers did not take into consideration. 

Second, Mayer raised concerns that Obama’s visit was framed as the president visiting, instead of the reality that Obama came as presidential candidate focusing on campaign rhetoric. While this is a valid objection, it’s not concrete or easily fixable, but rather a cognitive perception. How do you ensure students viewed the event as a speech from a presidential candidate? You hope you’ve instilled enough critical thinking that they can figure it out for themselves. And honestly, most students did understand this point. Obama didn’t come to speak to students about his daily job; he came to catalyze citizens to get out and vote. 

Of Mayer’s concerns, one stands tallest: attendees were required to RSVP in order to gain entrance to Bascom Hill. The RSVP process required attendees to go to Obama’s website, enter their email, phone number and submit their information via a button labeled, “I’m in!” 

“In” what? I’m “in” on the campaign? I’m “in” on supporting the president’s reelection?
Why should a student have to give his or her email and phone number, which will no doubt be used in some political way, like emails for donations, in order to see the POTUS? In essence, the process required students to pledge some initial support for the president’s reelection, regardless of whether they actually supported him. 

But the university administration was totally OK with this. 

As I mentioned in an column earlier this week, Madison is viewed by most of the rest of the state as a place where a stifling liberal culture prevents healthy discourse from happening. And events like Obama’s visit just add fuel to that fire. The university could have handled Obama’s visit in a bipartisan way, but instead, it showed open bias by bowing down to the way the president’s campaign wanted to organize the event.

However, this doesn’t necessarily support the notion that students are being “indoctrinated into the left” during their time here. It’s important to remember professors raised these concerns. If they obliged with the way the university handled the event, then that would obviously support the notion that those who are in charge of the classroom are hopelessly liberally biased. But it wasn’t the professors; it was UW administrators who gave the green light for the process. 

Vice Chancellor for University Relations Vince Sweeney said the event had “priceless educational value.” Yes, there is definite value to having the president come speak on campus, but if it is organized in the way the UW administration chose to organize it, then some of the “value” is offset by how much a Madison degree is devalued. When an employer gets an application from a UW student, there’s a chance they’ll look at that degree and think, “I’d rather have an employee whose mental capacity isn’t limited by being indoctrinated in a liberal classroom.” 

Fortunately, the political science department has proved our classrooms aren’t instances of “Clockwork Orange”-like liberal indoctrination they might seem to be to outsiders. But, unfortunately, the impression the rest of the state has of UW was further reinforced thanks to the university’s partisan handling of the president’s visit.

Reginald Young ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in legal studies and Scandinavian studies.