Obama picture is back up on poster at UMSL
A picture of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama on a character education poster at UMSL was put back up this afternoon.
Art Leverenz, an UMSL junior, just called me to tell me that Provost Glen Cope sent his class an email today apologizing for the picture’s removal, which was apparently done without a full understanding of how the picture was being used. (I have pasted Cope’s email to the class at the bottom of this post.)
As you might remember, the picture was removed last week after the university received a complaint about it. The poster was one of several made for a class project and that continues to hang in a classroom. Cope ordered Obama’s picture to be removed from the poster because of a university policy that prohibits the use of university resources or facilities to endorse for or against political candidates.
But the students in the class complained about the picture’s removal, arguing that it was not a political poster. Rather, they noted that Obama was being used as one of a couple of examples (Gandhi being another notable one) of good role models and leaders. The poster also includes a quote from Obama about the Civil Rights Movement. (To see a picture of the poster, click here to go to a previous blog post about this topic.)
Finally, here is Cope’s email:
Subject: Character Educaiton Poster Project
Dear Ms. Wiseman, Mr. Harris, and others:
Thank you for the additional information provided about the nature of the class poster project by Mr. Harris and Ms. Wiseman. Based on our investigation of the purpose and intent of the class assignment and the posters that were placed in 219 SCCB, we have concluded that the poster showing Senator Barak Obama and other famous individuals was not intended to be political in nature. Also, the posters were left hanging in the public, shared classroom after the end of the class session at the instructor’s request as part of the class assignment.
As you know, there was a complaint that the poster was political in nature and was placed in the public classroom during the pre-election time period, which caused us to remove the photograph of Senator Obama from the poster, as was explained previously. Since we have now concluded that the poster is not political in nature, the picture of Senator Obama may be replaced on the poster. It is my understanding that the picture was returned to students from the class. It may be replaced in the classroom and remain as part of the class project, as long as the class projects are posted.
We remain concerned about classroom materials remaining in shared, public classrooms, but this is not the concern of the students in this class, who were acting according to their instructor’s directions. We’ll address that in another way.
Please accept our apologies for any disruption caused while we were investigating this issue.
Yours truly,
Glen Hahn Cope, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs University of Missouri-St. Louis
426 Woods Hall
One University Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63121-4400
Kavita Kumar covers higher education for the Post-Dispatch. 
Why are college students making posters of “good role models and leaders” in the first place? Isn’t that a little elementary school-ish for a college assignment?
The real travesty in this situation was not the use of political photographs but the assignment itself. I invite Provost Cope to address the nature of this and the many other projects that form the foundation College of Education guiding philosophy.
As both a teacher and a graduate of UMSL, I can honestly say UMSL is too far removed from what teachers need most: strong knowledge of their subject and how to teach it.
Instead, the focus has always been on Mickey Mouse nonsense otherwise known as Character Education which that has no relevancy in teaching. As the article mentioned, the focus with Character Ed is to build positive self-esteem, learn right from wrong, etc. While the intentions of Character Education are noble, they have taken the place of what should matter.
I am left to think that in a time of economic uncertainty, growing unemployment, and a long term war; we are content with mediocre or even uneducated kids that will graduate with no employable skills so long as they feel good about themselves.
It’s not political??? Are you kidding me. What hogwash. What are students taught at UMSL?
” Don’t worry about the rules… just call it something else… Leadership”
What did Doctor Cope teach the students? Make your own rules!
My tax dollars at work.
By the way my poster work credits were completed by 6th grade.
Imagine my surprise.
A university leader caving to the political left.
Who could have predicted it?
The liberal ideology has infected and infested American institutions of higher (so-called) education (read: indoctrination) for over a generation and now we reap their reward.
The inmates are running the asylum.
you idiots…
The assignment was for an Introduction to Teaching class - the idea was to create a poster that communicated to MIDDLE SCHOOL CHILDREN!
please read the original article before popping off…
“the idea was to create a poster that communicated to MIDDLE SCHOOL CHILDREN!”
This must be how good little liberals learn to indoctrinate the youth of our country. I would bet my last dime that had they removed a McCain and/or Palin poster, there would have been no apology forthcoming.
“Subject: Character Educaiton Poster Project”
Hmm. I won’t touch whether the assignment was useful or worthy of being included in a university’s curriculum. However, I will suggest that Provost Cope has now twice shown an inability to edit his actions or his words, as he misspelled “education.” It is likely if he had taken the time to fully understand the context of this poster, he would have saved himself from the editing error. It seems like he might want to take more time to think when reacting or responding to situations.
To Politically Incorrect & Proud and timb44:
You really should read the entire article before you submit a comment and show the rest of us what idiots you are. Maybe you should both try taking the 6th grade over, you obviously need some remedial reading work.
Ain’t no big thing… a couple of months from now it will be required to hang is picture… well everywhere. Every government building, court, school, open wall of any kind… and soon after… every child’s bedroom.
Obama is an example of character. He is one of bad character. After twenty years of going to his church he denounced Rev. Wright, his friend, mentor, and spiritual leader, to further himself politically.