Do our Universities Press a Liberal Political Agenda?

[skigirl1689]

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?

Oh no, my faith was openly mocked in classes (usually by other students and the professors wouldn’t say anything or openly agree) and you didn’t dare speak out against abortion or same-sex marriage or you’d be the laughing stock of the class. I am Lutheran, but knew the campus ministry priest and met a lot of friends through that ministry. That and my own church’s student ministry is what kept me sane and faithful. My pastor always said though, if they tried to form the church’s student group now, instead of in 1967, they’d never be allowed to.

And I went to one of the less liberal schools in the state. But my interest was in writing so I was in the awful humanities department. I do have to say most of my professors were respectful, but then again, I didn’t argue my views too often. I was too busy worrying about getting physical access to buildings (I have a physical disability and campus was not too accessible, but I got some of that changed).

 

[Xantippe]

I’m a faculty wife and have been for quite a number of years, and here are some thoughts.

1. When I was in college as an undergraduate 20 years ago, I had maybe two very doctrinaire professors that come to mind out of literally dozens of professors I had. However, when I went to graduate school in a foreign lit area, the ideological bent was much more pronounced. In our department, there was one big continental feminist and two big Marxist/cultural studies people, and the two groups hated each other like cats and dogs (for both ideological and personal reasons). I was told that things were so bad that they couldn’t even hold departmental meetings–so we’re talking major dysfunction. I also heard that the English department was similarly divided into warring factions. (There were also less ideological professors at my department, but the graduate students were enthralled with the ideological ones. I found the environment ideologically uncongenial and dropped out after getting my MA. Silly me, I thought I was going to learn about literature when doing a literature degree. As it was, I did learn a good deal that has stood me in good stead since, but it was a pretty harrowing experience at the time.) Take away message–there is often more leeway in undergraduate humanities courses than there is at the graduate level, because in graduate programs, the star faculty may be in the process of producing mini-mes, whereas at the undergraduate level, there’s much more lip-service toward helping the students develop their own thinking.

I would encourage a child interested in the humanities to do A LOT of research, particularly before starting a particular graduate program. Also, be sure that the first time that particular controversial issues are raised that you care about is not when your child is out of your home.

1. Gay issues are becoming a shibboleth on campuses. Whereas 15 years ago, there was actually a lot of live-and-let-live, being against gay marriage is now commonly viewed as being synonymous with bigotry. It’s really important that your child have good formation in this area.
2. Make sure that you speak charitably about people with differing opinions to your child and make sure that you are able to offer well-informed, well-researched opinions, rather than knee jerk responses. Make sure your child knows that you understand the other side way better than they understand you.
3. There are lots of wonderful Catholic and Protestant professors on campus today and I have been privileged to know a number of them. I’m married to one and two of my kids have a professor godfather.
4. Theology departments are often hell holes, and I would assume that they are so until proven otherwise.
5. I would not rule a Protestant college out, if it were the right one. A number of the major Catholic colleges that people often complain about and give up for lost have many good people studying and working there–you just need to know where to look.
6. If your child says, “Professor A said XYZ!” feel free to say, “That’s funny–I didn’t realize that Professor A’s doctorate was in XYZ.” A doctorate is evidence of deep, specialized knowledge in a single area–it does not qualify them to have infallible opinions about all current events. A professor of Portuguese literature is undoubtedly knowledgeable about Portuguese literature–he is not qualified to hold forth on the US criminal justice system. You are just as qualified to have opinions on the US criminal justice system as that professor is–and perhaps more so if you have particular personal or professional experience.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I’m a faculty wife and have been for quite a number of years, and here are some thoughts.

1. When I was in college as an undergraduate 20 years ago, I had maybe two very doctrinaire professors that come to mind out of literally dozens of professors I had. However, when I went to graduate school in a foreign lit area, the ideological bent was much more pronounced. In our department, there was one big continental feminist and two big Marxist/cultural studies people, and the two groups hated each other like cats and dogs (for both ideological and personal reasons). I was told that things were so bad that they couldn’t even hold departmental meetings–so we’re talking major dysfunction. I also heard that the English department was similarly divided into warring factions. (There were also less ideological professors at my department, but the graduate students were enthralled with the ideological ones. I found the environment ideologically uncongenial and dropped out after getting my MA. Silly me, I thought I was going to learn about literature when doing a literature degree. As it was, I did learn a good deal that has stood me in good stead since, but it was a pretty harrowing experience at the time.) Take away message–there is often more leeway in undergraduate humanities courses than there is at the graduate level, because in graduate programs, the star faculty may be in the process of producing mini-mes, whereas at the undergraduate level, there’s much more lip-service toward helping the students develop their own thinking.

I would encourage a child interested in the humanities to do A LOT of research, particularly before starting a particular graduate program. Also, be sure that the first time that particular controversial issues are raised that you care about is not when your child is out of your home.

1. Gay issues are becoming a shibboleth on campuses. Whereas 15 years ago, there was actually a lot of live-and-let-live, being against gay marriage is now commonly viewed as being synonymous with bigotry. It’s really important that your child have good formation in this area.
2. Make sure that you speak charitably about people with differing opinions to your child and make sure that you are able to offer well-informed, well-researched opinions, rather than knee jerk responses. Make sure your child knows that you understand the other side way better than they understand you.
3. There are lots of wonderful Catholic and Protestant professors on campus today and I have been privileged to know a number of them. I’m married to one and two of my kids have a professor godfather.
4. Theology departments are often hell holes, and I would assume that they are so until proven otherwise.
5. I would not rule a Protestant college out, if it were the right one. A number of the major Catholic colleges that people often complain about and give up for lost have many good people studying and working there–you just need to know where to look.
6. If your child says, “Professor A said XYZ!” feel free to say, “That’s funny–I didn’t realize that Professor A’s doctorate was in XYZ.” A doctorate is evidence of deep, specialized knowledge in a single area–it does not qualify them to have infallible opinions about all current events. A professor of Portuguese literature is undoubtedly knowledgeable about Portuguese literature–he is not qualified to hold forth on the US criminal justice system. You are just as qualified to have opinions on the US criminal justice system as that professor is–and perhaps more so if you have particular personal or professional experience.

This entire post rings true.

Theology departments are horrible, and yes, there are some protestant colleges that sadly do a better job that Catholic or secular ones. I would be very hesitant though to send my children to a protestant college as Catholics unless I was very well acquainted with their theology, professors and even the student body. I can think of a handful of them that I would consider though. And surprisingly BYU is on that list.

And number 7?!

I remember taking math courses where we spent days and days listening to the Canadian professor lecture us on the war in Iraq and President Bush. There were even questions on the tests about it. It would seem that some professors think they have a bully pulpit to speak from about a wide variety of issues.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

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!

I’m guessing the “plethora of research” was published in unbiased teachers’ journals. As bad as the problem was when I was in school, it’s much worse now. The blatant agenda-pushing, bullying, disinformation and discrimination doled out by teachers and administrators (not just the ones I’ve spoken to directly but instances that others have told me about) is a serious danger to today’s kids and young adults. I think it’s a bigger problem than students having their opinions formed or swayed by their professors. I know a good number of people who gave up pursuing their chosen degree/profession because they were either openly and relentlessly discriminated against, or were failing classes solely due to their politics or religious beliefs. I know of far more instances where teachers or professors were teaching things with no factual basis. Just talking to my son’s peers, the amount of absolute garbage and propaganda they were taught as fact in both high school and college is appalling (I had a heated argument one night with a group of 20-somethings over the Clinton administrations role in bringing down the USSR and what a boost it was to his presidency when they tore down the Berlin wall). And like I pointed out above, I know and am related to a disproportionate number of educators. When they get together, they openly revel in each others’ tales about their own unethical and discriminatory behaviors (all directed at students or children of people they describe as Tea Partiers and/or Jesus Freaks). I believe that Catholic schools, on a whole, are only marginally better than public schools in this regard. If I had the means to do so, we’d homeschool in a heartbeat.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

And number 7?!

I remember taking math courses where we spent days and days listening to the Canadian professor lecture us on the war in Iraq and President Bush. There were even questions on the tests about it. It would seem that some professors think they have a bully pulpit to speak from about a wide variety of issues.

I have a teacher friend who majored in education, minored in Latin American history. She’ll shout you down any time you dare to question her expertise in science, math, geology, meteorology, etc. She’s a teacher, darn it, so she’s smarter than you. Her teaching degree gives her such a broad array of expertise that she knows better than I do what I had for lunch today.

 

[Xantippe]

This entire post rings true.

Theology departments are horrible, and yes, there are some protestant colleges that sadly do a better job that Catholic or secular ones. I would be very hesitant though to send my children to a protestant college as Catholics unless I was very well acquainted with their theology, professors and even the student body. I can think of a handful of them that I would consider though. And surprisingly BYU is on that list.

And number 7?!

I remember taking math courses where we spent days and days listening to the Canadian professor lecture us on the war in Iraq and President Bush. There were even questions on the tests about it. It would seem that some professors think they have a bully pulpit to speak from about a wide variety of issues.

That must have been annoying–college courses cover a lot of ground, there’s limited time to cover everything, and he or she was ripping you off academically.

I have a community college math teacher relative whose geologist colleague would also hold forth on politics. (Maybe he was talking about fracking though?)

Teach your subjects, guys.

 

[Abundant]

Yes, Universities are Liberal. However, some professors are Conservative.

Personally, I believe that as Catholics, we are Christians first and politically affiliated later. On some issues, conservatives are in line with Catholic teaching: less government, pro-life, pro-family. On matters of Catholic social teaching like having a safety net for the poor, immigration reform and social welfare, the liberals are more in line. As Catholics, we are not allowed to vote for politicians who support abortion even if they agree with us on social issues. If the abortion issue were put aside, and Catholics voted in line with social teaching, then a lot more of us would vote liberal. Alas, that is not the case…

Your daughter will learn sooner or later that her college professors don’t know very much. If they did, they would have much better jobs.

 

[Xantippe]

Yes, Universities are Liberal. However, some professors are Conservative.

Personally, I believe that as Catholics, we are Christians first and politically affiliated later.

**That’s a really good point.

There’s a really good quote from C.S. Lewis where he talks about the dangers of “Christianity and,” where we conflate Christianity and whatever our particular ideological passion is and then allow that secondary ideological passion to devour our Christianity. (I can’t find it right now–“Christianity and” is a terrible search term.)

It’s always easier to identify this error in others, rather than ourselves, though. I’ve seen examples recently, for instance, where people combine Christianity with their passion for men’s rights. At some point, it starts to look like Christianity is being valued for a handful of verses that are useful for for keeping women down rather than being embraced as an all-encompassing ethical system.

But again, it’s easier to see it when it’s other people doing it.**

**It’s a good idea to make it clear to one’s growing kids that Catholicism is not synonymous with a particular political program, and that reasonable people will disagree on how one goes about achieving the goods that almost everybody agrees on. There are a many different ways to go about achieving any particular goal.

It’s also a good idea to encourage the reading and discussing of actual non-fiction books before your child leaves home. I love P.J. O’Rourke’s Eat the Rich (it’s a sort of libertarian) 90s travelogue where he visits Sweden, post-Soviet Russia, and all sorts of crazy places and talks about what he sees and what it means about how the world works and human nature. His All the Trouble in the World is a similar book. (Lots of bad language, but not inappropriate for an older teenage child.) Kay Hymowitz’s Marriage and Caste in America is also very good on discussing the relationship between class and marriage and poverty. From the other end of the spectrum, you have Kozol’s Savage Inequalities and Annette Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods. I would strongly suggest starting a sort of “book club” with your older teen and working through books that you have found formative and important. A little bribery is OK, I think. (I’m also planning on taking my kids through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class in a couple of years.) Also, some good foreign movies can be very educational. (There is often the temptation, especially on college campuses, to assume that the US and Americans are uniquely terrible and paradise exists somewhere in Northwestern Europe, whereas the truth is that we’re all kind of terrible sometimes.)

I would definitely encourage parents to let go of the idea that they can create mini-mes just by talking to kids and sharing views. To a certain extent, young adults need to invent the wheel all over again. They need to work through problems by themselves (What does it mean to be compassionate? Would Jesus give winos drinking money? What does it mean to help people?), even if other much smarter people have already worked through the problems already. It’s also important to demonstrate that it’s not just just your stupid bigoted homophobic cynical materialistic middle-aged opinions that you are trying to shove down their throats.

Oh, yeah, and it’s important to be demonstratively charitable and to make charitable giving, and service a regular part of your children’s lives.
**

On some issues, conservatives are in line with Catholic teaching: less government, pro-life, pro-family. On matters of Catholic social teaching like having a safety net for the poor, immigration reform and social welfare, the liberals are more in line. As Catholics, we are not allowed to vote for politicians who support abortion even if they agree with us on social issues. If the abortion issue were put aside, and Catholics voted in line with social teaching, then a lot more of us would vote liberal. Alas, that is not the case…

Your daughter will learn sooner or later that her college professors don’t know very much. If they did, they would have much better jobs.

Ha!

To be more fair, college professors do know a lot–in their particular areas. The philosophy professors know a lot about philosophy, the chemistry professors know a lot about chemistry, the English professors know a lot about English literature, etc. But one should be automatically suspicious of anybody practicing outside their academic scope of practice, just as you would be suspicious of the podiatrist’s obstetric advice.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Ha!

To be more fair, college professors do know a lot–in their particular areas. The philosophy professors know a lot about philosophy, the chemistry professors know a lot about chemistry, the English professors know a lot about English literature, etc. But one should be automatically suspicious of anybody practicing outside their academic scope of practice, just as you would be suspicious of the podiatrist’s obstetric advice.

Exactly! If I want to learn about math, they should teach math. If I want to learn about idiotic Communist Marxist Atheist illogical thought I should sign up for a class with that title and stare at the professor like a monkey in a zoo.

 

[Art321]

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.

I’m sorry, but I have to politely disagree completely on this. It has been from my years as an undergraduate that I learned that education is and can be amazing if one truly has an open mind. I do agree that perhaps most colleges are liberal, yet I happen to believe that not all aspects of liberalism are bad.

Since the race issue has been discussed here, it is best one look up actual facts on this matter, and I do see how it is a sensitive issue for everyone. But it is no lie when sociologists say that minorities in America continue to face racism. (I’m sure you didn’t mean to say that it doesn’t exist.) In the end, I believe that what I learned from university has made me into a better person in terms of intellectual matters and moral ones, yet I still pro-life, pro-family, and against gay marriage. But I had the courage to listen to other’s point of view, even if I didn’t come to agree with them.

Just wanted to give my ::twocents::

 

[PeopleB4Things]

My college daughter was home over the holiday. I started joking about some of our leftie relatives who all toasted to Obama one Thanksgiving.

She gave me a little look and told me that after being in college she’s learned some things. Then she went on to tell me how she now understands things. One further inquiry, she says that she’s still sort of in the center, but yada yada yada…

I’ve attended 3 different colleges for 3 different degrees. My degrees are in social science and business. You’d think I would have stumbled on some indoctrination during that time but I didn’t. I did learn a lot about economics, corporate finance and banking. I also learned about government systems and societal constructs. I debated people in classes and in the study lounges. I listened to, read about and wrote papers on competing ideas. I was taught to deconstruct and reconstruct arguments in order to understand them better. And I did all this while holding down a job, paying taxes and eating mac and cheese & ramen every night for dinner because I was poor as anything. I too went from center right to center left and I too voiced my displeasure to my family for what seemed to be inappropriate slights against people I loved.

Are we related?

 

[eamonnroma]

Well, we would first of all need to agree on a definition of what essentially it means to be liberal. You can define it, I think, in at least 2 or 3 different ways. Probably many more. Some are not necessarily hostile to the Catholic Faith.

In Europe people who advocate use of guns, war, who are against social medecine/housing, who are in favor of capital punishement and so on, are considered to be going against the basic tennents of Christianity.

 

[SuperLuigi]

I too went from center right to center left and I too voiced my displeasure to my family for what seemed to be inappropriate slights against people I loved.

Why?

She gave me a little look and told me that after being in college she’s learned some things.

I’ll take indoctrination for 500, Alex.

I went to a public university in the 1960s. There was an anti-God, secular humanist leaning in every class. If I had it to do over I would select a Catholic college from the Newman Guide.

A better choice, perhaps, but many Catholic colleges aren’t so Catholic even today.