Now the AP adds to the fray. Everyone dogpile on Aguiar!

The Associated Press has now jumped on Gary Aguiar using his students, which means there's a good chance this story is going to go national. From today's Rapid City Journal -
South Dakota State University administrators are checking into concerns from students who say Gary Aguiar, a political science professor, used students in his class to help him with his campaign for mayor of Brookings. The dean of SDSU's College of Arts and Sciences is investigating, but no written complaint was made, Carol Peterson, vice president for academic affairs, said.

Students said Aguiar circulated a nominating petition in class, asked for campaign volunteers and encouraged another class to create a campaign strategy for him.

One student, Brian Kimmes, said Aguiar's action was an abuse of power to campaign for Tuesday's mayoral election.

and..

Professors may run for office, according to a Board of Regents policy, but they cannot use their position to push students toward political activity or recruit students for outside activity benefiting the professor.

"Students were concerned," Ryan Brunner, executive director of the South Dakota Student Federation, said. "They didn't know how their grade would be affected if they didn't sign the petition or volunteer."
Not much added here, except the attention on the race is being ratcheted up several notches.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Al "ZZ Top" Gregg must not have heard how you trashed his ad a couple weeks ago. He ran it again in the T&C Shopper last week.
PP said…
I noticed that.

But on the other hand, he has some really good ones in the Brookings Register.

I can't figure out why he'd do that.
Anonymous said…
Don't feel so bad. When I was in graduate school I had a professor who also worked for a large advertising company in Chicago.
He asked us to create a product and an advertising campaign for the class project. It was the entire grade for the class.
My idea was to place bar codes in grocery store checkout lanes and scan the product instead of punching in the price by hand.
Well, I don't have to go but my old professor moved to Monte Carlo a couple of years later.
I got over it.
Anonymous said…
This guy is a Republican right? Why is Brunner piling on? He's a Republican.

I still haven't figured out why other Republicans in this state need to "out" each other every time something like this happens, whether at the state or local level.

There is reason why Democrats dominate our state elections and this is just one of the many reasons why.

Lee Atwater had it right when he handed down the 11th commandment: never say anything that would do harm to another Republican.
Anonymous said…
blindly support anybody with an R behind their name, what a neat concept anon.
Anonymous said…
Maybe Brunner's just honest, as well as other "R's". "Democrats dominate our state elections" you say. Huh? What state are you from?
PP said…
Anon 4:30, were you recently dropped on your head? Because it sounds like your thinking is seriously affected.

This is not a Republican/Democrat thing. This is a right/wrong thing.

Abusing your students is wrong, whether it's a teacher seducing their student, or designing a class whose sole aim is to help your personal election ambitions.
Anonymous said…
Aguiar is a "Republican" Having taken a class from him I would have to laugh. His voter ID in 2004 was Kerry, Daschle, Herseth.

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