"A trio of high-profile UW-Madison professors went public Wednesday with concerns about President Barack Obama's planned Thursday campaign rally..."

"... saying students who want to attend are unfairly being required to supply a phone number and email address to the campaign, even having to click 'I'm In' to get a free ticket at the campaign's website...."

Vince Sweeney, vice chancellor for university relations, said the university takes the concerns seriously and will respond formally but hadn't done so as of Wednesday night. In linking to the Obama campaign's registration site on the university's website, the university sought to provide as much information as possible to interested attendees, he said.

"We don't manage the (Obama) link, we're not collecting that information, and ultimately if it's a problem for those wishing to attend, it's an individual decision" whether or not to provide an email address and phone number, he said.

Sweeney said the campaign approached the university about holding the event at Bascom Hill, and the university decided it could make the site work, noting there are advantages for the university in showcasing a central attraction on campus. Obama also visited campus in 2010, that time holding a campaign rally across the street at Library Mall.

Library Mall is not the center of campus, and it was closed down later in the day. Even so, there was much hand-wringing from the administration about whether the event impinged on the University's education mission. And notably, Obama wasn't running for office in 2010. This time, it seems the University jumped at the opportunity to provide Obama, now facing an election, with the most beautiful photo-op possible, shutting down many buildings — and many classrooms — for an entire school day.

Obama's campaign will pay UW-Madison $15,000 for Thursday's rally....

What?!

... Police and other public safety costs will be borne by taxpayers. For the 2010 visit, those costs added up to about $260,000.

Wow! What a contribution to the campaign! University personnel have been working like mad on this visit, with all sorts of construction and wiring and papering over windows and so forth for the last 2 days. We've had to rearrange our work schedules, find new classrooms or methods of teaching. The cost and the disruption are immense even before the event has begun. $15,000! But supposedly we get some valuable PR out of "showcasing a central attraction on campus." What about the negative PR we get out of shunting aside our educational mission?

ADDED: I am personally messing up the hoped-for PR. To the extent that I'm turning the positive to negative, I'm subtracting value from the University. My dissent is costing the taxpayers money, and I apologize for that.

AND: More here, including maps showing the extent to which UW students and employees are excluded from our work and study places. And:

A set of guidelines released by the university Sept. 8 read “political activities are generally not allowed inside campus buildings or spaces, recreational sports facilities, athletics facilities or campus libraries.”

“Clearly it’s a campaign space, a space that’s being rented by a campaign,” said Vice Chancellor for University Relations Vince Sweeney in reaction to Mayer’s criticisms. “But it is the President of the United States.”

Rented by the campaign... for a paltry $15,000, with the huge difference in cost coming from the taxpayers.

“Having a president visit as an educational public event is one thing,” Mayer wrote. “Forcing students to declare their support for a presidential candidate in order to attend the event on campus is quite another.”...

“It’s not a perfect situation,” Sweeney said. “But overall I think the benefits outweigh some of the negatives or the disruptions or issues that some people may raise.”

Downs said when Obama visited UW-Madison just two years ago, then Chancellor Biddy Martin insisted the event not be held on Bascom and instead moved it to Library Mall.

Martin made sure to “symbolically separate the event from the University itself,” according to Downs.

Biddy Martin, you may remember, is gone, a consequence of our failure to support her in her negotiations on behalf of the University with state government, which was, at the time, dominated by Republicans against whom right-thinking Madisonians were protesting with great vigor. (The taxpayers had to foot the bill for those protests, of course.)

"[M]y reaction to President Obama’s visit has gone from unease, to mild irritation, to serious concern."

UW—Madison polisci prof Kenneth R. Mayer has 4 problems with the decision to allow the Obama campaign to hold a rally in the center of campus that will shut down many buildings for the entire day — a regular class day — tomorrow. This text is from a letter he sent to some of the people involved in the decision-making. He copied me on the letter and responded positively to my request to blog it. Here are the 4 problems:

(1) In order for students to get a ticket for this event (which doesn’t even guarantee entry), the University is requiring them to go to the Obama campaign website, provide contact information, and then click on a button that says “I’m In!” In a very real sense, we are forcing them to become participants in the campaign and express their support for the campaign. This is SOP for a campaign event, but it should not be for the University. Having a president visit as an educational public event is one thing. Forcing students to declare their support for a presidential candidate in order to attend the event on campus is quite another. Should we be in the business of helping a campaign farm thousands of email addresses?

Note: You also have to give your phone number, which for many/most students means a cell phone number, something that I think most people see as more private, since it doesn't go into the public phone directories.

(2) The location of the rally could not be more disruptive. It hardly seems appropriate to shut the central campus down for an entire day, closing offices and seriously disrupting our mission. I have several colleagues who had scheduled exams for Thursday. Surely there were other venues that would pose less disturbance.

(3) I have learned that classified staff will be required to take a vacation or personal day, arrange to work at another location on campus, or work at home. This is what pushed me into the seriously annoyed category. The UW is penalizing staff (or, at a minimum, dramatically inconveniencing them) for an event that they had no say in organizing or scheduling. That’s wrong.

(4) The University is finessing the central point of this visit. It is not a Presidential visit. It is not a Presidential speech. It is a campaign event. It is a major event when a president visits UW. It is, I’m sure you’ll agree, somewhat less major when the president comes not as a president, but as a candidate.

This is not a partisan issue (my objections would be the same if it were Romney). I think this should have been handled differently, in a way that welcomed the President but did not diminish our basic purpose.

ADDED: Ken teaches a course called "American Presidency," and you can see the subjects covered and the readings assigned here.  Here's "The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency," which is only $33 if you go for the Kindle version.