Obama has most faculty donations

University faculty and staff have given $14,850 to political causes and candidates during the current election cycle, according to information released by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

About half of the money donated by Princeton employees so far — $7,150 — has been given to presidential candidates. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, a graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law School, is thus far the most popular candidate for donations from University employees.

The largest contribution from people listed on the FEC website as University employees is $2,300 to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) from William Longstreth, of Marco Island, Fla. Though listed by the FEC as a Princeton University professor, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty said that the University had never had a professor with that name and he could not be reached for comment.

Yale employees have contributed $11,350 to presidential candidates since the beginning of the election cycle and, The Crimson reported, "Harvard employees donated just over $150,000 to 2008 presidential candidates in the first quarter of this year."

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who leads the Democrats in total contributions to date with over $36 million, has received no contributions from University affiliates. Other Democratic presidential hopefuls to receive contributions include Senators Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.). According to federal law, individual contributions to one candidate per election cannot exceed $2,300 per year.

While Dodd and Edwards had single contributors, Obama received $2,250 from a total of four contributors, including Dean of the Wilson School Anne-Marie Slaughter '80, who donated $1,500 in late March, and Wilson School professor and former dean Michael Rothschild, who donated $250 in January.

In an interview, Rothschild said that he chose to give to Obama's campaign for the presidency in 2008 because "I was excited that he seemed fresh, plausible, and is black. I actually come from the district in Chicago where he was a state legislator and I've heard very good things about him."

"I like the idea that he had been a law professor at UChicago law school; I liked his CV," Rothschild said, adding that Obama "was particularly interesting to me because he ... had fresh ideas."

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince’. Donate now »

Obama has been a senior lecturer at the law school of the University of Chicago since 1993 and has taught courses on constitutional law and voting rights; he is currently taking a "leave of absence." Obama has received over $25 million dollars in contributions so far. Over half of Harvard employees' contributions went toward Obama's campaign.

Sociology professor Katherine Newman, who gave a total of $500 to John Edwards in January and March, wrote in an email that she wanted to contribute to Edwards' campaign for the presidency because "John Edwards has placed the problem of poverty front and center in his campaign. He is the only candidate out there who seems to think this is an important issue and I support him for this reason, above all."

For Newman, who said she has "devoted much of my professional career to the study of inner city poverty, especially the fate of the nation's working poor," Edwards' decision to focus on poverty "is not politically popular and he gains very little, other than moral authority, from sticking to his commitment to eradicate poverty in this wealthy country."

She explained, however, "This is why he has attracted my support, and that of dozens of leading authorities in my field."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Robert Goldston GS '77, director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, donated $2,300 to Rep. Rodney Freylinghuysen, a Republican who has represented New Jersey's 11th district since 1995. The district covers all of Morris County and other surrounding municipalities in northern New Jersey.

Goldston said in an email that he donated to the congressman because "over the years Congressman Frelinghuysen has been a wonderful supporter of scientific research."

But he has "also contributed to our local congressman, Rush Holt [D-N.J.], who of course is also a wonderful supporter of scientific research. I think it is important for us to have representatives in Congress with this kind of longterm vision."

Goldston emphasized that "these are personal political contributions. They are not in any way a University contribution. They're from me as a scientist, who thinks it's important to have folks in Congress [who are] interested in science."

Newman echoed the sentiment that she supports Edwards because "I've just found a politician who agrees with my own views and is willing to make the problem that is, for me, so central to our country's future, his most powerful theme."

She added, however, that she does not think supporting a candidate has an effect on her academic neutrality and teaching. "I haven't changed my thinking about the issues," she said.

Similarly, Rothschild does not think that professors' personal political views have an effect on their teaching. "Not mine, I hope," he said. "And I expect, not others."

"It's no great secret that the great majority of the academy is liberal or Democratic," Rothschild said. "I don't think that has to affect, and I don't think that does affect, the way in which they teach. If professors do indicate where they stand, they should make it pretty clear what the distinction is between the truth, if there is any such thing, and what their own opinions are, or what other people's opinions are, and my guess is that Princeton people are pretty serious about that. I would certainly hope so."