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The Republican Party of Massachusetts apparently wants Harvard to fire law professor Elizabeth Warren. This is because Warren is running for the U.S. Senate. According to an article by Tara W. Merrigan and Zoe A. Y. Weinberg in the Harvard Crimson:
In a letter to University President Drew G. Faust, Nate Little, executive director of the Massachusetts GOP, expressed concern that Warren’s Senate run would detract from her academic work at Harvard, and that her ties to Harvard may suggest that the University endorses her.
“For Harvard to continue to employ her as a candidate is inconsistent with the academic mission of the college; detracts from the work that she would be expected to perform as a member of the faculty; and creates the impression that Harvard endorses, supports and is in fact subsidizing her campaign,” Little wrote.
What does he mean “creates the impression”? The institution does not endorse, support, or subsidize her campaign. If that impression exists Harvard might want to merely correct that impression, as is it is not accurate.
Even the Boston Globe gets caught up in this little rumor, writing that “professors rarely run for major offices, and when they do, they typically drop their academic positions.” This isn’t really accurate. Professors run for office so rarely that there’s no typical way to go about this at all.
As Timothy Noah notes at The New Republic, John Silber took a leave of absence from the presidency of Boston University to run for governor of the Bay State in 1990. Robert Reich, however, continued to teach at Brandeis when he ran for governor in 2002. (Both Silber and Reich lost.)
There’s actually no consistency here whatsoever. Sometimes people resign academic oppositions to run for political office, but someone running for office is under no ethical obligation to stop working for a university. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Noah appropriately points out, continued to serve as a professor at Harvard even while running for office in another state altogether.
Now, granted, such behavior probably wasn’t so great for his students, but no one suggested Harvard was endorsing anything.
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Crissa on October 03, 2011 5:47 PM:
I'm not even sure what the conflict is supposed to be?
Would there be a conflict if a pizza magnate was still managing his pizza chain, and running for office?
Don't people have jobs and still run for office every day? How is that inappropriate?
SYSPROG on October 03, 2011 6:16 PM:
What's the conflict? That voters might suspect someone SMART is actually running for Congress? Someone that actually HAS a job and knows how to do it?
FRP on October 03, 2011 6:36 PM:
Its inappropriate because it gives professor Elizabeth Warren the appearance of a sane , disciplined , person who not only can actually work for a living but impart to her students the fruits of a productive and thoughtful life .
How in the world is that fair for a party involved the denial of the obvious from , Biology , logic and on to physics ?
For the rock ribbed right winger this is an endorsement that claims professor Elizabeth Warren ain't cuckoo , a state they can hardly manage to even dream about between determined commitment to all cuckoo all the time .
PQuincy on October 03, 2011 8:12 PM:
In my local college town, a professor of political science from the local university was elected mayor years ago. He quite appropriate went on leave as professor, and has been reelected. He's still a professor (on leave), and when he's done mayoring, or kicked out by the voters, he's got the option of going back to professoring. What's the problem?
Warren can run for anything while professor, and it is Harvard's business, not the Republicans', how well she does her job as professor. (Hint: a lot of Harvard faculty don't exactly teach big classes every day, though a few do).
Clancy on October 03, 2011 9:00 PM:
I believe that Paul Wellstone also kept teaching at Carleton College right up until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1990. Wellstone had been extremely active in state politics for almost two decades before that.
Anonymous on October 04, 2011 6:32 AM:
The conflict of interest is obvious. Mass. Republicans know the Scott Brown experiment is almost over, which conflicts with their interest in seeing it continue.
Harvey on October 04, 2011 9:10 AM:
This is an easy one to resolve. Warren takes a leave from Harvard until November, 2012 if Scott Brown takes a leave from the Senate for the same period.
Bartender on October 04, 2011 11:16 AM:
Ok, once Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recuses himself from any future healthcare rulings because of his obvious conflict of interest with his wife's anti-Obamacare lobbying, then fine, perhaps Ms. Warren should consider avoiding any apparent conflicts of interest in her senate campaign.
Tigershark on October 04, 2011 1:17 PM:
Harvard is a private business; an investment corporation with a educational component on the side. Why is the MA GOP trying to tell a private business how to conduct its business?
Dex on October 04, 2011 4:11 PM:
The MA Republicans are envious, they do not have anyone qualified to teach at the university level.
Jamie on October 04, 2011 4:39 PM:
We, I would be in favor of forcing politicians to resign their current position before they started trying for the next one. an academic position can be held in sabbatical if the Prof wants a different job.
paul on October 06, 2011 8:47 AM:
This would make perfect sense in a world where Greg Mankiw had resigned his professorship at Harvard to be the chair of GWB's council of economic advisors.
POed Lib on October 06, 2011 12:46 PM:
We all know that the Repukeliscum Party is not interested in the jobs of normal people, but it's unusual to see them advocate in such obvious terms that unemployment be increased.
If I were Warren, I would immediately use this insanely stupid demand of the Repukeliscum to discuss jobs and joblessness and how the Repukeliscum are only interested in rich people.
joe Baffa on October 13, 2011 8:47 PM:
Why is it that Scott Brown does not resign from the Army Reserves.... who pays for his time when he goes away to fulfill the time required to stay in Army Reserves ..that's easy ...the people he represents .... not only money but an absentee representative of the people .... he has used his military uniform for his benefit ...wearing it at times which are forbidden under military regulations ... for his own personal political gain ...several veterans have called him out on that ... his response will be forth coming once Senator Dole writes it for him...
Arakiba on October 17, 2011 3:38 PM:
Warren's a professor. The republicans don't believe brains and politics mix. 'nuff said.
Rick Massimo on October 25, 2011 2:27 PM:
It's what Josh Marshall called "bitch-slap" politics. They're yelling at her to resign for no other reason than to try to assert power over her - to show her they can make her do things she doesn't want to do.
It also sends a message to anyone else who may think of challenging them in the future that they will make your life extremely unpleasant.
It's all so very American and patriotic, don't you think?