Philip Busse, a visiting professor of media studies, published a post on news blog the Huffington Post describing how he stole McCain/Palin signs along Highway 19. As soon as he published the post Oct. 30, word of the post began to circulate throughout the student body, causing a whirlwind of backlash among the St. Olaf community. Due to criticism, Busse resigned from St. Olaf Nov. 3 at 4:30 p.m.
Busse did not respond to attempts to contact him. However, citypages.com, a weekly alternative news outlet in the Twin Cities, reports Busse saying, "They forced me to resign. St. Olaf wanted to distance themselves from my actions. I can understand." The article continues, stating that, "St. Olaf wouldn't comment on Busse's hiring, citing personnel issues."
For stealing the lawn signs, Busse can be charged with theft. Citypages.com reported that the Rice County Sheriff's Department announced Busse will be charged with a misdemeanor theft and could be fined $1,000 and serve up to 90 days in jail. Busse said in the article that he would be going back to Portland, "before the mob comes at me with pitchforks."
In the blog, Busse explained his reasoning for pulling out the signs: "I was trying to achieve some great public service for rural voters." He believes that Minnesota farmers increasingly vote conservative against their own interests.
"By pulling out the McCain signs, I was hoping to curb the impression for passing motorists that family farmers in Minnesota supported McCain," Busse wrote.
Besides stealing lawn signs, Busse admitted to lowering a student's grade for wearing an Obama T-shirt when he gave a presentation about talk radio's impact on the current election.
"I told him that the T-shirt made his presentation look biased and detracted from his otherwise sincere analysis of Rush Limbaugh," Busse wrote.
Steve Benton '12 said at first he was shocked, and angry after Busse told him he marked him down for wearing the T-shirt during the presentation, but that he understood later on and decided to let it go. Later, when a friend e-mailed the article to him, Benton was upset again and commented on the article.
"I commented on his article and from that I've gotten e-mails from people," Benton said.
One of the e-mails was from a professor at the University of Missouri instructing Benton on which people to talk to regarding the issue of having his grade marked down.
"By the time I got around to talking to the deans, he was already gone," Benton said. "He was a fun guy, but the people I've talked to felt it wasn't a great learning experience."
"Most of the comments were nasty, and not very civil," he said. "I was trying to seem respectable and not be a jerk, I wrote about what happened with the shirt and my opinion about wearing that."
"I find it ironic that he doesn't respect the first amendment even though he is a journalist as well," Benton said.
In the comments Benton left, he said that the actions of this professor do not represent values of the college. Benton was also interviewed by citypages.com.
Busse has a history of being involved in politics. He ran for mayor of Portland, Ore. in 2004, finishing third. In the spring of 2008, Busse was also the campaign manager for John Branam, who was running for city council. The Portland Mercury reported on March 14 that Busse was being overpaid for those duties, to the tune of approximately $7,000 a month.
The Willamette Week reported in September 2001 that Busse was charged with plagiarizing an article about prison boxing called "Down for the Count." The original article was published in an earlier publication of the Oregonian. The Willamette Week reported that while some of the article was original, "Busse's piece is remarkably similar" to the original article that was written.
In the Willamette Week in 2006, Busse was also reported to be a model for the soft-core pornographic website pantydude.com. The Portland-based website displays men wearing women's underwear. The photo with Busse has him wearing a black-lacy pair of women's underwear and a hardhat.
Busse resigned Nov. 3 due to pressure from the St. Olaf administration. His class was temporarily taken over. The media studies class is now being run by professor Bill Sonnega.
Be the first to comment on this article!