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Nothing really new here. In undergrad, in DC, professors would throw out all sorts of academic incentives and disincentives to goad students into attending rallies. Thats why the attendence numbers can never be taken seriously, the rallies are packed with kids who are pretty much compelled to attend.

There was a big anti-war rally in mid-January 1991 (right before the kickoff to Desert Storm) that a professor made attendence at mandatory. We had to bring back some item showing we’d gone.

A group of us (including a fair number of ROTC students) went down together and discovered a counter-rally being held across the street. Where the organizers were giving away “Free Kuwait!” tee shirts.

The professor was LIVID when we showed up at the next class wearing them. One of the ROTC guys told him flat out that if he didn’t accept them as proof we were all going to go down, en masse, to the Dean.

Professor backed down, but seethed about it all semester. Probably tanked our grades a bit in the end, but not by enough that we could really challenge him. But it was worth it, esp when we wore the shirts again to the first class following the cease-fire.