A Michigan State University (MSU) professor is on leave after requiring students to subscribe to her own Planned Parenthood-supporting website as part of a business marketing class.
As reported by the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), Professor Amy Wisner is currently on leave from MSU after students protested her actions. MSU will also reimburse the students for the $99 annual-renewing service known as a “Rebellion Community.”
The Western Journal reports that the dean of the school, Judith Whipple, sent an email to students, writing, “We conducted a review of the MKT 250 Business Communication class and assignment materials based on feedback. We take student feedback very seriously as we strive for the best educational experiences for our students.”
The email added, “You will receive a one-time credit for $99 to reimburse you for the subscription to The Rebellion Community as this material will no longer be required for the course. The refund will be applied to your MSU account within the next two weeks.”
Students will be responsible to actually cancel their subscriptions, however, since the signups came with autorenewals.
Screenshot from Facebook, edited for profanity (via YAF)
Included in Wisner’s course listing: Internet connection, Zoom, The Rebellion Community Membership, paper journal, and a FlipGrid account. The list resembles a game of “which of these things just doesn’t belong here?” in many ways, as the other required components would be standard for most classes.
The story notes, “The leftist professor, who has taught in the business school at MSU since 2011, included the $99 membership requirement in the course’s syllabus.” YAF’s previous story on Wisner reported that the her students “weren’t afraid to hold back after discovering that the platform was Wisner’s own.”
It reviewed “dozens of chat messages between the professor and some of the students she apparently swindled. When one student asked why she couldn’t simply use the university-provided learning management system (which students already pay for with tuition dollars) to upload the course’s content, she dodged the question, replying ‘wouldn’t that be nice? Tuition is ridiculous, you guys. I honestly think that this is the future of education.’”
YAF speculated that since Wisner had over 600 students enrolled in her course in this single term, she had “likely collected tens of thousands of dollars in revenue from her students.”
Furthering the conflicts from this situation, YAF reports that she presents varying agendas for her funds. In one class session, she reportedly told her students the money she raised was to bring the class various speakers; however, a view at her GoFundMe page states a desire to fund her RV Rebellion [at] cancelthepatriarchy.org. YAF notes that one of her website pages says, “100% of membership fees are used for awareness, education, and activism for a BULLY-FREE FUTURE™.” But her Facebook post, featuring Ruth Bader Ginsberg, says all her proceeds go to Planned Parenthood.
Perhaps ironically, Wisner’s GoFundMe page says, among other things: “If you are… Deeply troubled by the divisiveness, bullying, and vitriol in online spaces, classrooms, and communities… Sick of witnessing the judgment, criticism, shaming, rejection, and abandonment of “cancel culture”… Exhausted from the constant fearmongering in media and politics.” Yet she forced business students to subscribe to her product, something students felt was bullying them into her political stance.
“I would like my money to go toward my education – not toward a party bus for the professor, her activism, or to an organization I do not personally support,” Zachary Friedman, a member of MSU Young Americans for Freedom and student in Wisner’s class, told YAF in February.
