Political Events and Rallies

Scope

All faculty and staff

Basis

Please note the following summary of legal guidelines for what colleges and their employees can and can’t do during the political election cycle. This is based on Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3), which prohibits nonprofit organizations, as a condition of their tax-exempt status, from engaging in “any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

  • Employees and representatives may not use their position, or the reputation or resources of the college, to endorse, support, or oppose a candidate.
  • Colleges can educate students on how to effectively participate in the electoral process as long as the professor remains nonpartisan.
  • Nonpartisan encouragement of faculty members and students to be responsible citizens who vote and take an interest in the political process is allowed.
  • Colleges may organize voter registration campaigns but must ensure that they are strictly nonpartisan.
  • Colleges may educate students about moral issues and advocate biblical values; however, such teaching and advocacy may not include expression of support for a particular political candidate or party.
  • Employees are free to become personally involved in political campaigns so long as (1) they do so without using the college’s financial resources, reputation, facilities, or personnel either directly or indirectly; and (2) they clearly and unambiguously indicate that their actions and statements are personal and not on behalf of the college.

Policy

Public political events/rallies for the sole or almost exclusive purpose of advancing a candidacy of a person(s) for public office may only occur if those events are sponsored by an officially recognized club/organization. These programs fall under the same guidelines and controls that govern any other campus event. Individuals who are not affiliated with Albion College may not reserve space and utilize campus resources for public political events/rallies for the sole or almost exclusive purpose of advancing a candidacy of a person(s) for public office.

Cabinet reviewed 9/2008