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The state Republican Party is requesting emails from a UW-Oshkosh professor who encouraged students to sign a recall petition seeking to remove State Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) from office.

A recording of the March 7 class in which criminology professor Stephen Richards discussed recall efforts against Hopper surfaced last week. The professor says that some 100 faculty members are involved in the recall effort.

“One would hope that the others involved in the effort have acted more responsibly than Professor Richards,” Mark Jefferson, executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a statement.

Filed with the university last week, the party’s request seeks any emails “into or out of the university email account of Professor Stephen Richards from Feb. 1-present” mentioning “Randy Hopper, Jessica King, Scott Walker, collective bargaining, recall, rally, petition, Republican, Peter Larson, Wisconsin Progress PAC, Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Solidarity PAC, WEAC or AFSCME.”

Jessica King is Oshkosh’s deputy mayor, who has announced her desire to run against Hopper in a recall. Peter Larson is treasurer of the Committee to Recall Hopper.

In March, a similar request seeking emails from the account of UW-Madison History Professor William Cronon created a national stir. Cronon’s blog postings and later an op-ed that appeared in The New York Times had drawn the attention of the state Republican Party. UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin later said the university would comply with the request in part.

UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said the university had already investigated what transpired at the March 7 class prior to the recording surfacing. In a statement, he said the professor and the university had agreed to “corrective action.” Wells said the professor “clearly crossed the line into inappropriate political activity.”

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