At first, when reading about the University’s new ethics policy, I believed that it was a violation of free speech. Only after carefully thinking about the policy, I realized that it is necessary.

If students found out what political candidates or even views that their professors or even TAs held, they might feel pressured to vote a certain way, depending on how the professor or TA was viewed to them. Even something as harmless as attending a political rally or having a bumper sticker could be harmful if it got out which TA or professor did this.

This may be painful, but it is a necessary evil. We do not need another incident like in Boston, where history credit was given for campaigning for Obama in New Hampshire, or in Colorado, where an anti-Palin essay was assigned.