Many professors reserve the first class of the semester to review the syllabus and classroom policies, but a distinguished creative writing professor took his first lecture in a more offensive direction.

In an anonymous student's secretly recorded video provided to Campus Reform, Michigan State University's (MSU) William S. Penn appears to go on an anti-Republican rant. The student recording the lecture is not sitting close to the professor, so it is not clear from the video if it is, in fact, Penn.

In his rant, he calls Republicans "cheap," says they want to prevent black people from voting and that they "raped this country." He also inferred Mitt Romney to be hiding income offshore in locations like the Cayman Islands. He also taunted him and his wife Ann by sarcastically asking the class, "her as a first lady?" and "Anyone here want to be Mitt Romney? ... Married to her?"


"If you go to the Republican convention in Florida, you see all of the old Republicans with the dead skin cells washing off them," said Penn. "They are cheap. They don't want to pay taxes because they have already raped this country and gotten everything out of it they possibly could."

Penn appeared to be combative toward a student who was "frowning" during his lecture. After asking if the student was frowning, he went on.

"This country still is full of closet racists," he said. "What do you think is going on in South Carolina and North Carolina? Voter suppression. It's about getting black people not to vote. Why? Because black people tend to vote Democratic."

He then stated he would "come after" anyone who he found to be a closet racist. Penn was an MSU Distinguished Faculty Award recipient in 2003 and has won the Stephen Crane Prize for Fiction twice.

Campus Reform asked Penn and the school for comment. MSU directed them to contact the creative writing teacher, but Penn flatly said he would not comment.

However, in another story posted hours later, Campus Reform reported the school would be investigating the anti-Republican rant captured on video.

"MSU is thankful we've been made aware of the situation; we will be looking into it," MSU spokesman Kent Cassella said. "At MSU it is important the classroom environment is conducive to a free exchange of ideas and is respectful of the opinions of others."

Penn said he did not mean to offend anyone who might be a Republican and asked those with Republican views in their family to forgive him, while also saying he did not care.

"Even if you are a Republican, I don't mean to offend you in this class," he said. "Outside of this class is a different matter."