There are some exceptions to the new policy:

Candidates for unpaid or temporary offices
Municipal charter revision commissions
Delegate to constitutional conventions
Positions on a city or county board where the position is unpaid
Candidates for any part-time local offices where the position would not demand work during university-working hours
Smith said that the policy is not final, saying, "We are still waiting on input from the on-campus community."

Contrary to what I had heard earlier (as I will explain later), the faculty union will be subject to this policy.

Now, I had heard about this policy being in the making back in late April.  I had been told by somebody inside of CMUthat this policy would not apply to faculty who are union members because their contract would have to be reworked through the union, and the union would never let this happen, so instead of fighting with those faculty members, they were just going to leave them exempt.

Dennis Lennox, former Student's Against Gary Peters spokesman told the  CM-Life, "I think it's a great proposal that should have been implemented months ago.  This is a victory for students and tax payers who wanted to hold Gary Peters accountable.  It's a huge vindication.  It's just unfortunate it took 10 months and a whole host of horrible events for this resolution to occur."

Now, how does this affect the race for the 9th District?  Well, as I'm sure you all know, Gary Peters obviously falls under this policy.  He will either have to resign or take a leave of absence.

What do I think?  I think the policy is completely stupid, but I think it will stand in court.  From what I've seen, since CMU gets federal money, the policy can legally fall as an extension under the Hatch Act of 1939, which has been held up in 2 Supreme Court cases.

Personally, I think this is a violation of free speech.

Ideally, CMU would have a policy that would allow professors to run for office but make sure that no time or resources that belong to CMU are used.

I don't know if Peters will resign or take a leave of absence, or if he'll challenge it.  The source that talked to me in late April told me that he/she thought that the ACLU might get involved.  Now that it applies to union faculty members, I think the union will fight back as well, which is a great help for their cause.  They could turn this into quite a battle.  Of course, if they went on strike, I would consider that way over the line and probably add them to my long list of hated unions.

I'll keep you updated if any more news comes out about the policy.  Next week (maybe), I'll be talking about fundraising.

Done Ranting,

Ranting Republican