This afternoon (Saturday, October 23, 2004) when I took my son to the SRC to work out, I was disturbed to see a pickup truck backed into a parking place along the road in the Nenana lot that was displaying a large "Joe Miller" campaign sign.

When I arrived at my office, I phoned Campus Security to ask whether such a sign were permissible, given the university's policy of not displaying partisan campaign advertising on campus.  I was assured that an officer would look into the situation.

An hour later, when I returned to the SRC to pick up my son, I was gratified to see that the sign in question no longer was visible.

I don't know whether Campus Security got the truck to leave or whether the driver left without prompting, but I'm grateful that this blatant violation of UAF policy was curtailed.

We've already been embarrassed enough by the political advertisement by President Hamilton that appeared with his university title associated with a political endorsement.  It would have been extremely unfortunate for the "Joe Miller" sign's obvious violation of university policy to have been tolerated.

 Roy Bird

Professor of English

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