In April, after two semesters of Topinabee senior Dennis Lennox II's media campaign against congressional candidate-turned professor Gary Peters, the university administration drafted the policy.

But it has yet to be implemented, said Maxine Kent, associate vice president of human resources.

"The last time I asked about it in August, I was told they would begin looking at it after the Board (of Trustees) meeting because they were so busy working on the medical school stuff," Kent said.

The draft sent out April 30 was the first update to the original policy dating back to 1955. Faculty feedback was requested via internal e-mail.

As proposed, the draft policy would require full-time employees to either resign or take an unpaid leave based on their candidacy filing date. It includes exemptions based on the locality, type and time commitment of the office sought.

The proposal was a direct result of the Peters controversy, Kent said. Peters, the current Griffin Endowed Chair of American Government, a privately funded part-time professorship, came under heavy criticism by Lennox.

Lennox, a junior at the time, started Students Against Gary Peters last fall and followed Peters around campus with a video camera. He managed to attract substantial negative national media attention to Peters by claiming an inherent conflict between his candidacy and professorship.

Peters is fighting for Michigan's 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, hoping to oust Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg. The district is located in Oakland County, near Detroit.

Kent said the feedback was that the draft was too vague and there were questions about various definitions. She expects that an update will be ready for the Board of Trustees by December.

"I think the policy that will end up coming out of that process will be much different than what people looked at before," she said.

Eileen Jennings, the university's general counsel, said the administration has broad leeway to be restrictive or not, based on her legal research.

"I told them you can have a policy, that, as long as it's reasonable, can go quite far from one direction to the other," she said. "You can have almost no limitations, and you can have a very complex set of limitations."

CMU has a long history of faculty running for office, Jennings said. Nancy White, a law and finance associate professor, is challenging Republican incumbent Bill Caul this year for the 99th District state house seat in Midland and Isabella Counties.

Also, Sharon Tilmann, a long-time local political figure and temporary faculty member in the counseling center, is seeking an open seat on the City Commission this year.

Jennings said the school stays out of trouble by not campaigning for a candidate, and the candidate by not using university resources to campaign. The question is whether the faculty member can still do their job while campaigning.

"I think that's the essence of what (Lennox) really disagrees with," she said. "I think he thinks (Peters) just can't do both at the same time."

Peters spends each Monday night teaching a politics and elections class for three hours, and has office hours between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. before the class. His first exam is scheduled Nov. 3, the day before the election.

"I'm not really familiar with the policy, to be honest," Peters said about the draft proposal.

This is his third semester as the Griffin Endowed Chair. He said he would remain at CMU through the end of his three-year term if he loses Nov. 4.

Peters said voters have not questioned him about Lennox while on the campaign trail. Lennox has largely dropped the issue this school year.

In a meeting with the CM Life editorial board, Lennox alleged that the Michigan office of the American Civil Liberties Union recently threatened to sue CMU over campaign finance law violations among members of the political science faculty in relation to the policy.

Jennings said she has not been contacted, and the ACLU communications director, Rana Elmir, flatly denied contacting CMU about the policy.

"We would make it public," she said. "We never do anything in secret."

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