Public University May Have Violated Election Law By Offering Credit for Obama Internship

The academic world is famously in the tank for President Barack Obama. Some of the President's largest donors are universities. The President himself is a former university professor. Academics are thick on the ground in his administration. There's little point in denying that this administration is chummy with academia.

And as long as that chumminess stays firmly private, and not subsidized by taxpayer dollars, it has every right to persist. Unfortunately, in this case, such a subsidy is arguably in place.

Campus Reform reports that Addams State University, in Colorado, recently found itself on the wrong end of a state law prohibiting public resources on behalf of partisan campaigns. Why? We'll let them tell it:

Adams State University posted the opportunity late last week on its website stating: “The Obama Campaign Internship (GOVT 279 Presidential Election Internship) will be a 12 week long organizing internship for the Obama Campaign.”

No similar offer was made for students to participate on the presidential campaign for Mitt Romney, who is the Republican nominee for the White House.

Julie Waecter, Assistant to the president for communications at Adams State, told Campus Reform on Tuesday that while the public university did offer the credit no public resources were deployed towards that end.

“No state funds are being used to pay for students working on the campaign,” she said.

She added that the school had decided to cancel the offer.

To obtain school credit, individuals would have been required to volunteer for the Obama campaign for at least 15 hours each week and attend an all-day training session on September 20th.

Campus Reform also brings us these screengrabs of the university's announcement of this "course" before and after the scandal. Before:

And after: