UCLA faculty members contributed the most monetary donations toward 2008 presidential candidates out of all the University of California campuses, with a significant amount going toward the Democratic Party candidates.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics Web site, which tracks individual and group donations to political parties, UCLA faculty members gave $66,030 in donations to candidates vying for their party’s presidential bid.
Of the total, $2,150 went to Republicans and the rest to Democrats, reflecting what some experts say is the liberal leaning of campus’ faculty members. A similar political trend was seen at UC Berkeley, which had the second-highest amount of donations from a UC campus with $26,926.
“Anyone’s that surprised that UCLA’s faculty is a left-leaning group hasn’t been paying attention,” said law Professor Stephen Bainbridge.
One of four donors who gave to Republican candidates, Bainbridge contributed to the Fred Thompson campaign, which recently came to a halt when the politician withdrew from the race on Tuesday.
Professor Michael Goldstein, Academic Senate vice chair and chair-elect, said there is no specific written policy about political monetary donations made by faculty, but the University of California’s Faculty Code of Conduct allows staff members to enjoy constitutionally protected expressions of freedom, which include contributions to political campaigns.
He added that he believes it is difficult to connect faculty members’ political contributions with classroom presentations, especially since their field of research or work may be unrelated to politics.
“I don’t think you can draw any conclusions,” he said. “While professors have tremendous amounts of academic freedom, (they are) very realistic and aware of dangers of allowing political beliefs affect how they present material (in class),” he said.
Donors were varied, including UCLA Medical Center doctors and law professors. The donation sizes varied as well, from $200 to $4,600.
Patricia O’Brien, the executive dean of the UCLA College, donated $2,300 to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was the candidate who received the most money from UCLA affiliates, with $30,780 ““ almost half of the total.
Donating to the Illinois senator’s campaign early last year, sociology Professor Cameron Campbell said he supports Obama because he seemed to be the most effective candidate to help unite a disjoined country.
“I think out of the Democratic candidates … he was the best suited to help bring the country together again. Things are rather divisive, and he seems to be someone who could speak across different boundaries,” Campbell said. Campbell also said he wanted to support Obama as a donor because the candidate had “a message and I would like to help him get it out.”
“If you feel strongly about a candidate, you have a certain responsibility to do what we can as private citizens to support that candidate,” Campbell added.
For Bainbridge, he said he wanted to support Thompson through monetary contributions because he felt that in the L.A. liberal landscape, physically volunteering for the Reagan conservative would do little.
“Money is the only way that Republicans … have in supporting candidates because of the Democratic majority (in Los Angeles),” Bainbridge said.
With reports from Edward Truong, Bruin senior staff