Donors listing UF as their employer contributed about $142,000 to political candidates and groups during the 2012 election cycle, according to data on www.OpenSecrets.org, a money-tracking website launched by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Of that amount, $27,524 was donated to Republican causes and $74,941 to Democratic causes, and the remaining money was given to groups with unspecified affiliations.
This breakdown isn’t surprising, said UF political science professor Daniel Smith. Alachua County is generally liberal, he said, and most university faculty members’ partisan affiliations are on the Democratic side as well.
“You don’t have to check your partisanship at the door,” he said. “You don’t give up your First Amendment rights to associate just because you’re a UF faculty member.”
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes confirmed this.
“Everyone that works at UF has the right to donate to the party of their choice,” she said, adding that UF does not endorse candidates.
A search of www.OpenSecrets.org’s donor lookup database Monday afternoon turned up 288 records in which donors listed their employer as “University of Florida.”
John Kirkpatrick, chair of Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville, donated the most money on the list. According to search results, his contributions totaled $10,500 and included $1,000 to Republican candidate Mitt Romney and $2,500 to the Campaign for American Values.
Basketball coach Billy Donovan donated $1,000 to Florida Republican Senate candidate Steve Oelrich, according to the results.
Statistics professor Maria Ripol gave $250 to President Barack Obama, as did Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Jeanna Mastrodicasa.
“I support President Obama’s efforts,” she said, specifically referencing his initiatives that support college students. “I work closely with students, so I see the benefits.”
She said she’s planning to vote for Obama in today’s election.
On the other side of the political spectrum, UF physics professor Richard Woodard said he’s voting for Romney.
“I wish academia was not as far left as it is,” said Woodard, who donated $2,000 total to Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns, $1,000 to Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann and $1,000 to the Senate Conservatives Fund.
Woodard said he takes issue with the politicization of science, specifically when his colleagues jump on global warming as a legitimate theory, he said.
“It makes me depressed and frightened,” he said, “that the effort that I and others put into rolling back the frontiers of human knowledge in our own fields is going to be lumped in this very shaky science behind anthropometric global warming.”
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
