Stupid Educator News

At U.W. Oshkosh, in Wisconsin, a professor was caught on tape telling his students to sign recall petitions against a Democratic senator and told the students to help recall governor Scott Walker.
From jsonline: The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh took "corrective action" after determining a professor urged students to sign a recall petition against Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac, school officials said Tuesday.
The university released a statement about its action after the State Republican Party produced a March 7 audio recording of criminal justice professor Stephen Richards recommending that students sign the recall. In the recording, students are told about a bill Hopper supported that would remove collective bargaining rights from most state workers.
Hopper is one of eight Republicans and eight Democrats who faced a potential recall votes this summer. Organizers said they filed more than 22,500 signatures with the Government Accountability Board in Madison last month to recall Hopper.
A student who made the recording gave it to the state Republican Party, according to the Oshkosh Northwestern. Conservative radio host Charlie Sykes of WTMJ-AM (620) broadcast the recording Tuesday.
A statement from UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said the university respects the principle of academic freedom, but "professor Stephen Richards’ classroom comments of March 7 clearly crossed the line into inappropriate political activity."
Wells released a timeline that indicates the university's College of Letters and Science dean met with Richards between March 9 and March 16 to discuss the incident.
Wells' statement said that Richards and the dean of the university's College of Letters and Science agreed on "corrective action" by the beginning of April, but did not explain what the corrective action was. Administrators followed up with students who raised concerns about Richards' comments and were told classroom conditions have improved, according to Wells' statement.
"Unfortunately, at times, there are isolated incidents, which we fully investigate, and, where appropriate, take corrective action," Wells said. "We regret that the poor judgment of one person can have a negative impact on an entire university community."
Hooper called for Richards' resignation.
"This blatant misuse of authority from Professor Stephen Richards is outrageous and should not be tolerated," he said in a statement. He called on Wells to investigate whether other professors campaigned on state time. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/121176134.html
Of course, the professor won't be fired because of tenure rules. Further, it boggles the mind how this thug of a professor was even hired as he has spent time in prison for drug crimes.
Even his students don't think too highly of him: As a criminal justice student at UW Oshkosh, it's about time that the public gets to hear what we deal with daily from this idiot. Currently I am in a night class with him - the first two classes of the semester were cancelled so he could attend the rallies in Madison, the next three weeks he spent the entire 3 hour class periods ranting about his personal political views and repeatedly referred to Governor Walker as "an idiot." I have had him as a professor for 4 classes throughout my 4 years at UWO, I can honestly say I haven't learned a thing from him. He spends more time promoting himself and his views on marijuana legalization than he does teaching us about "Women in prison" and "convict criminology" (the names of the classes which he teaches). He is a disgrace to the CJ program at Oshkosh and i speak for the overwhelming majority of all students in the program when I say that we would be happy to never have to see or listen to him again.To give you an example of the lack of ethics and extreme ignorance this guy possesses:He requires students to purchase at least two if not three or four of his books for every single class he teaches.He refers to himself as "a big deal in the criminal justice system" and routinely brags about being picked up in limos and taken to interviews with major news networks throughout the country. (why they would want his input nobody knows)He has stated in class that most sex offenders just "made a dumb mistake" and online predator stings are entrapment.The list goes on and on... He's useless.
http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/charliesykes/121149274.html?blog=y#commentform
This type of "educator" gives the rest of us a bad name. He should have been fired immediately.