Do our Universities Press a Liberal Political Agenda?

[pensmama87]

My college was - at least in the humanities department. The administration was also increasingly liberal and seems to have become so even more since I graduated. In the natural sciences, there was less of it, and those programs are still very academically strong. I got sucked into the Women’s Studies department and came out of school identifying as a socialist. Took me about one year to get over that, but oh man, was the fog intense. :hypno:

I am still a big believer in the value of a true liberal arts education, but it seems those are scarcer and scarcer in today’s society. There was an active Newman Association on our campus, and quite a few students who were conservative, but I remember once a columnist for our student paper was openly ridiculed by a professor - in class - for expressing libertarian opinions. At the time, I was all, “Go professor!” but now I can see just how incredibly inappropriate it was (even though I still don’t agree with the positions that student expressed.) There was a really strong sense of “You guys know better now, so you have to go make those dumb people behave the way they should.”

Interestingly, the ideas they presented as completely new and radical aren’t. They’ve been recycled through colleges for a few generations now - it just seems they never make it very far out of the academic world and the fresh batch of undergraduates hasn’t heard them. I still think my undergraduate education was, for the most part, worth it, but I put most of that credit on the professors who had been there the longest, who were still committed to classical education principles. The newest professors - at least in the humanities - tended to be the academically weakest, but the administration liked them because they came from “diverse” backgrounds (unfortunately, that had a very specific meaning.)

When my husband and I first graduated, we thought we would want to send all of our kids where we went, but now we aren’t so sure. We don’t like the direction the school is taking. This was the first year we didn’t contribute to their scholarship fund, and five years out I actually gave them a really scathing review for their alumni questionnaire.

 

[Miss_Felicity]

Presumably no parents are delighted that - whatever their children’s new-found views (and however dodgy they might sometimes be) - their kids are at least taking the time at college to think for themselves?

Yes most universities (everywhere) are comparatively left-wing institutions. Part of going to college is to establish one’s own identity, and sometimes that means a time away from the values that have been instilled in you from childhood.

And then part of starting a career thereafter is to realize that the real world doesn’t work the way the more doctrinaire professors like to think it does…

If you go to college and don’t graduate changed in some way, you’ve not really been doing it right. I wouldn’t worry about that; most people find their way back again.

You summed it up better than I could. I was raised a bit on the liberal side (not raging left) but definitely much more left than right. As an adult I’m more moderate. College and adulthood changes people because it becomes okay to have your own opinions. I’m really blessed that my mom (neither of my parents actually) were the type to freak out if I disagree with them. Some views from my childhood and growing up I still think are accurate, others have evolved.

People forget that professors are a relatively small part of the learning process in college, this isn’t middle school or high school where someone spoon feeds you information for hours on end daily. There is a lot of reading, independent research and people from different backgrounds, cultures etc.

I think parents who require their adult and college educated children agree with every opinion the parent holds are looking to place blame and it falls somewhere when they don’t. If we respect our differences and take the time to have dialogues, LISTEN, research and learn, your opinion may not change but something is gained, IMHO.

 

[georget]

You summed it up better than I could. I was raised a bit on the liberal side (not raging left) but definitely much more left than right. As an adult I’m more moderate. College and adulthood changes people because it becomes okay to have your own opinions. I’m really blessed that my mom (neither of my parents actually) were the type to freak out if I disagree with them. Some views from my childhood and growing up I still think are accurate, others have evolved.

People forget that professors are a relatively small part of the learning process in college, this isn’t middle school or high school where someone spoon feeds you information for hours on end daily. There is a lot of reading, independent research and people from different backgrounds, cultures etc.

I think parents who require their adult and college educated children agree with every opinion the parent holds are looking to place blame and it falls somewhere when they don’t. If we respect our differences and take the time to have dialogues, LISTEN, research and learn, your opinion may not change but something is gained, IMHO.

“Respect our differences”, a line liberals always use, when I hear it I smile and say a prayer.

 

[Miss_Felicity]

“Respect our differences”, a line liberals always use, when I hear it I smile and say a prayer.

I said in my response I consider myself more moderate/center, but hey if lumping me as a liberal (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing) proves your point, why bother with what I really wrote.

So are people NOT supposed to respect differences? I don’t know if I’m sure what the alternative is?

 

[georget]

I said in my response I consider myself more moderate/center, but hey if lumping me as a liberal (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing) proves your point, why bother with what I really wrote.

So are people NOT supposed to respect differences? I don’t know if I’m sure what the alternative is?

Typical, never called you anything, just said it was a line liberals always use

 

[BobCatholic]

Leftists reproduce asexually.

If they were left to themselves, they would contracept, abort, homosexualize, and euthanize themselves out of existence. That’s what they stand for. If that were the case, Karl Marx’s book would be a historical curiosity, collecting dust in a museum somewhere, instead of official government policy.

They use public universities, colleges, high schools, junior high schools and elementary schools for one reason: Brainwashing our kids into becoming little Marxists. Then there’s the media, again, more brainwashing. Then the government jumps in and does even more.

All that brainwashing is how leftists reproduce asexually.

 

[adawgj]

My English professor keeps spewing conservative ideology. This is a secular college too.

 

[JamalChristophr]

I think there are some elements of the liberal viewpoint that are good.

I like to define things clearly, however, a prerequisite to sincere and substantive dialog. Perhaps we love our viewpoints too much at the cost of not being able to really listen to people who don’t share them.

I do my best, though imperfectly, to follow Christ and His Church and prefer not to think that I am a conservative or a liberal.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

Maybe it is because I went to a British university (Britain as a whole is a little more left-wing than is the United States - though it is not a socialist haven/hell as I think occasionally gets portrayed either), but I would be very, very surprised to find many professors at any British university from inculcating particular views (apart from academic ones eg about a particular historical/economic/etc theory) in their students.

From sheer curiosity…is this something that genuinely happens a lot in American colleges…or is it something that lots of people feel MUST happen just because their offspring return home after their first year thinking differently?

I have friends who were driven out of their programs because they weren’t liberal enough. Some were told point blank by the head of the department that if they didn’t change majors he would fail them in every class they took from him (which was at least 1/4 of the required classes for the major). I had professors who told the class that if they expressed specific viewpoints (always conservative/Christian viewpoints) in their papers, grading would start one letter grade lower for them. Other professors would teach their liberal opinions and fantasies as fact, and if you answered test questions with the correct, factual answers, they’d be marked wrong. I had one professor I took for three different classes (she was the only one who taught them, and they were required courses). We were required to give 5-10 speeches per class. As soon as I’d start voicing my position, since they were invariably counter to liberal philosophy, she would tell me to sit down and shut up. The last class I took with her, I think I only made it all the way through two of my ten speeches, and the one was because I refused to sit down.

The funny part of my experience was that I was very left-leaning when I started college, to the point where my more conservative friends would get up in arms if I called myself middle-of-the-road. The one or two moderate to conservative opinions I held got me branded a Neo-con fascist. I was constantly having to defend not just my actual less-than-liberal viewpoints, but conservatism in general. This forced me to really examine my beliefs from both sides of the fence which led to me jumping firmly to the right. So for me at least, the indoctrination efforts really backfired.

 

[Murmurs]

I have friends who were driven out of their programs because they weren’t liberal enough. Some were told point blank by the head of the department that if they didn’t change majors he would fail them in every class they took from him (which was at least 1/4 of the required classes for the major). I had professors who told the class that if they expressed specific viewpoints (always conservative/Christian viewpoints) in their papers, grading would start one letter grade lower for them. Other professors would teach their liberal opinions and fantasies as fact, and if you answered test questions with the correct, factual answers, they’d be marked wrong. I had one professor I took for three different classes (she was the only one who taught them, and they were required courses). We were required to give 5-10 speeches per class. As soon as I’d start voicing my position, since they were invariably counter to liberal philosophy, she would tell me to sit down and shut up. The last class I took with her, I think I only made it all the way through two of my ten speeches, and the one was because I refused to sit down.

This (as other people have written on this thread already) is an absolute travesty. There are LOTS of things wrong about Britain, and even British universities. But I am pretty confident this would actually be illegal over here.

I guess I am slightly left-of-centre (on most things anyway), but I can’t conceive of a mindset that says “if you disagree with me, it’s not a matter of opinion you are just WRONG”. Part of the fun of being a human being and things is having conversations where you are not all just echo-chambers for each other, but actually thing differently. That is what is EXCITING (even when you disagree vehemently). What is wrong with these people? (The professors, that is)

This goes for some threads on Catholic Answers as much as a university professor or anyone else though, by the way. I feel kind of disgusted right now…

 

[Country_Gal]

I told my daughter, once she gets older and starts paying taxes, she’ll get more conservative, that’s what happened to me.

The main issues she mentioned were that Black people suffer a lot of racism, how much money the country wastes on war, and how higher education should be subsidized.

I think most of the students are against the police in the Ferguson situation, hence her increased awareness/opinion about Blacks. I didn’t want to argue that particular item, but I did point out that she grew up in an almost lily white, small town. I, on the other hand, had grown up in a Black area in Southern Calif and did get harassed a lot, and saw first hand the deterioration of the neighborhood. My Mom and Aunt taught in inner city schools and my Aunt actually got attacked and her jaw broken by an angry Black parent. So I told her that I had seen the other side of that story.

Regarding the money spent on military operations, I agree with her and told her that I think the US should be more isolationist in that regard.

Her opinion on funding on higher education is that colleges should have higher standards for admission, since she sees a lot of young people who don’t belong in higher education. I told her that I thought there should be more training in technical schools and other vocational schools. She feels that the government could divert money wasted on wars to assisted qualified students.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I told my daughter, once she gets older and starts paying taxes, she’ll get more conservative, that’s what happened to me.

The main issues she mentioned were that Black people suffer a lot of racism, how much money the country wastes on war, and how higher education should be subsidized.

I think most of the students are against the police in the Ferguson situation, hence her increased awareness/opinion about Blacks. I didn’t want to argue that particular item, but I did point out that she grew up in an almost lily white, small town. I, on the other hand, had grown up in a Black area in Southern Calif and did get harassed a lot, and saw first hand the deterioration of the neighborhood. My Mom and Aunt taught in inner city schools and my Aunt actually got attacked and her jaw broken by an angry Black parent. So I told her that I had seen the other side of that story.

Regarding the money spent on military operations, I agree with her and told her that I think the US should be more isolationist in that regard.

Her opinion on funding on higher education is that colleges should have higher standards for admission, since she sees a lot of young people who don’t belong in higher education. I told her that I thought there should be more training in technical schools and other vocational schools. She feels that the government could divert money wasted on wars to assisted qualified students.

The understanding the average college professor has about actual race issues is comical.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

This (as other people have written on this thread already) is an absolute travesty. There are LOTS of things wrong about Britain, and even British universities. But I am pretty confident this would actually be illegal over here.

I guess I am slightly left-of-centre (on most things anyway), but I can’t conceive of a mindset that says “if you disagree with me, it’s not a matter of opinion you are just WRONG”. Part of the fun of being a human being and things is having conversations where you are not all just echo-chambers for each other, but actually thing differently. That is what is EXCITING (even when you disagree vehemently). What is wrong with these people? (The professors, that is)

This goes for some threads on Catholic Answers as much as a university professor or anyone else though, by the way. I feel kind of disgusted right now…

Any complaints tended to fall on deaf ears because all the department heads up through the president of the college were of the same mindset. One of the few times I saw student complaints accomplish anything was with the one professor who was a Holocaust denier. She never hid the fact that she believed it was a myth, but she usually stopped just shy of flagrant antisemitism. On the numerous occasions when students complained about her Holocaust denial, her being black trumped them being Jewish and nothing was done. The president put it in more politically correct terms, but it always came down to him saying she was a minority so she can’t be racist and she’s entitled to her opinion. When she crossed the line into bold-faced antisemitism and near-Hitler worship in class, a large and diverse enough group complained (and got local media coverage) that they finally put her on leave for a year then brought her back in an administrative, non-teaching role (although I think she spent the last 10 years of her career teaching again).

The understanding the average college professor has about actual race issues is comical.

Same college, two different professors. One quit grading on a curve one quarter which resulted in nearly half the class failing. The other began each quarter by telling all the non-black students in class that they couldn’t get an A and that he would be knocking an entire letter grade off the top before he even looked at their work, meaning the best any non-black students could hope for in his class was a B. Take a guess at which one was censured for two years because of his blatantly racist actions (HINT: It wasn’t the second one). I experienced a lot of disillusionment back in college. (And for the record, I always believed these circumstances had far more to do with the political ideologies of the people making the decisions than the race of the teachers or students involved.)

 

[Viki63]

What burns me is working overtime for 4 years and paying outrageous sums to put my oldest son through college, to have him emerge with an antipathy to marriage, pro-choice and anarchist views. He has free will of course, but just thinks I am next door to crazy because of my faith.
I pray for him and all my children daily.

 

[JamalChristophr]

What burns me is working overtime for 4 years and paying outrageous sums to put my oldest son through college, to have him emerge with an antipathy to marriage, pro-choice and anarchist views. He has free will of course, but just thinks I am next door to crazy because of my faith.
I pray for him and all my children daily.

You don’t sound much different from Monica. The mother of Augustine and look how he turned out!

Just keep praying…I wasn’t so different from your son when I got out of college. Maybe not so far left or whatever you wish to call it…but anyways just keep praying and maybe send him some book as as a “Hail Mary” pass…sorry…like “Why Catholics are right” or something you think might touch him.

 

[Kal2012]

The most vocal voices on campus tend to be Liberal. Everything tends to be viewed through that lens. It’s not whether you are a Liberal, but what kind of Leftist causes you support.

 

[Kelfa28]

The understanding the average college professor has about actual race issues is comical.

What amazes me about this…is the clairvoyance ordinary people have about actual race issues compared to the so-called highly educated elite.

Sometimes, I swear, the less educated you are…the more clarity you tend to have on how the world works.

Don’t get me started on the crazy liberalism that spews from universities and colleges. I’m attending a state university within the most liberal and progressive state in our country (I’ll let you guess which one you think it is…).

Thankfully, I’m finishing my degree in the medical field and my exposure to extreme liberalism is at its most minimum. I was smart enough to finish my core classes at a community college online so I wasn’t spending hours in class listening to some PhD in sociology drone on and on about racism, feminism and every other “ism” one can think of. It saved my sanity and helped me move on to finish my degree without having to tear my hair out.

Yes, it’s bad. Really bad. I’m afraid to send my kids off to college.

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

Student loans tie into the perpetuation of the liberal elite in our colleges. They get to ride high on the hog as do the bankers; the governments gets its acolytes freshly trained even as they prepare to skim their assets for life. What a job: teach to your ideology without real world consequences, and get paid well for it. A devil’s bargain if you ask me.

 

[Country_Gal]

Student loans tie into the perpetuation of the liberal elite in our colleges. They get to ride high on the hog as do the bankers; the governments gets its acolytes freshly trained even as they prepare to skim their assets for life. What a job: teach to your ideology without real world consequences, and get paid well for it. A devil’s bargain if you ask me.

Very insightful. And make it so that a Bachelors is fairly useless in most fields, requiring students to spend their most productive years racking up more debt and going through ridiculous academic hoops.

This keeps them from starting families, or else interferes severely with their family lives. But the unattended children can be watched by electronic media devices, and paid caregivers. Only the welfare moms will get to spend any time with their offspring.

 

[High_flyer]

I do find this thread amusing. It seems to still be a major concern mostly for Americans. Even though there has been a plethora of research done on this subject. The finding being that students’ politics are not formed by their tutors or professors. The strong conservative right wing bloc in US politics have always complained of brainwashing and bias on campus, even setting up bodies to monitor and expose alleged offenders.
There is strong evidence that other factors have an effect on why some may change their outlook at university, such as gender and socio-economic status.
Academic freedom and intellectual diversity is what is so great about university. Being able to debate and form or re-afirm ones beliefs. You should leave not only with a Degree but also with a feeling of being challenged!