Prof no longer offering extra credit to oppose GOP tax plan

A Kutztown University professor who planned to offer students extra credit to “rally against the GOP tax bill” has cancelled the assignment in response to public “concerns.”

Campus Reform reported Tuesday that Dr. Mauricia John had invited her students to attend a union-sponsored rally Thursday, asking them to find her at the event and sign a form to prove their presence.

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“Please join your faculty as we rally against the GOP Tax Bill that has serious implications to you and on Higher Education. This is an opportunity to gain additional extra credit,” John’s email stated, with a bolded subject line of “Additional Extra Credit Opportunity!”

Now, Campus Reform has learned that the extra-credit opportunity has been revoked, with a follow-up email sent by John informing her students of the cancellation.

“Please note that the extra credit assignment announced yesterday is no longer available,” she wrote to her students, offering them an online extra credit alternative, which, according to an anonymous source, is to write a brief reflection on whether “the wage gap between men and women in the U.S. will ever close.”

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Additionally, the university itself released a statement announcing that the extra credit opportunity is no longer available to students.

“This was not an unusual situation, as the subject matter of her classes regularly cover social and political issues, current events, and other rallies that occur on campus, regardless of political affiliation,” the statement read. “Given the concerns that have been raised by the extra credit, the professor has retracted the assignment and provided alternate options for her students to complete.”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski