Back in April, Senator Barack Obama made a campaign appearance at Georgia Tech University. Fine, no problem. Naturally, on campus, news and ads for his event were everywhere. Fine--you'd expect that. What you would NOT expect is an official of the university to say, in effect, vote Obama! (and full details are here)--money quote:
What I didn’t expect was to learn of his visit from an email sent by the Georgia Tech Dean of Students Office.
In the email message sent through the Buzzport announcement system, usually reserved for official Institute business, all 17,000 Georgia Tech students were informed about Obama’s visit and solicited to volunteer for his campaign. The message stated:
"Senator Obama is also in need of a lot of volunteers to help him publicize while he is in Atlanta. If you are interested in volunteering you can check the box that says volunteers on the RSVP page. Volunteers will be needed for Wednesday (street publicity team), Thursday (sign making party) and Saturday (helping with the actual event) you can also reply to this message if you'd like to volunteer. "
Is this solicitation an appropriate use of the Buzzport announcement system?
According to the Dean of Students website:
"The Office of the Dean of Students provides advocacy and support for students. This office assists students in resolution of problems, provides information and referral about campus resources, and promotes initiatives that address students [sic] needs and interests."
