<p>Funny, the CC program won’t let me spell Prof. F<em>u</em>k<em>u</em>y<em>a</em>m*a’s name. Just because he’s conservative the program thinks his name is the equivalent of a four letter word. :)</p>
<p>Brown is quite left, no doubt. I wouldn’t like it, but there are plenty who would.</p>
<p>My wireless keyboard is going a bit nuts and I keep losing my post. Since I started attempting to post something a few mintures ago I lost any desire to combat any of those statements. I will say, without going through it line by line and attempting to explain each one from my POV (one you totally do not understand, trust me, and I don’t appreciate your attempt to categorize me), that I don’t blame you for having such an opinion as its the one I would most likely have as a townie. All things are not as you have laid them out, however. As an insider I think those reading this post should at least give my opinion a bit more credibility on Brown than your own.</p>
<p>I will mention that while Brown has an ‘open curriculum’, Hopkins offers:</p>
<p>1) No formal grading in the first semester, all courses are P/F
2) One course every semester outside of the major can be P/F
3) No core curriculum</p>
<p>Both Hopkins and Brown are exceptionally explorative simply by nature.</p>
<p>Anyone who cites the Spectator or takes David Horowitz seriously should not be taken seriously themselves when it comes to discussing the politics at a university.</p>
<p>1) The Brown Lecture Board is hardly an extensive list of speakers at Brown and is just one group on campus. If you attended Brown, rather than just went on its reputation from afar, you’d know about speaker series like the Janus Forum, which specifically brings in conflicting view points to have a fuller, richer discussion. These are some of the best attended lectures and there have been numerous articles on the Daily Herald where conservative speakers talk about how happy they were to get the kind of serious welcome and engagement on issues at Brown where they expected to be shunned.</p>
<p>2) ROTC is not allowed on campus just like at many other campuses nationwide. It started as a Vietnam issue and has morphed into a combination of issues, the most important of which is a complete lack of interest on campus.</p>
<p>3) Describing faculty as liberal or conservative, and even our students as such, is overly reductive and meaningless. Generally, students and faculty at Brown are what I would define as progressive. By this I mean we are generally observers of our nation and the world and believe that we can all be doing a better job. As such, we examine successes and failures and advocate for policy we believe will change the world for the better. Sometimes this comes in the form of traditionally conservative policy-- for instance, you’ll find many advocates of charters and school choice and school-based intervention over whole-community intervention in the Education department, all ideas that are associated with conservative/market approaches. While there may be overall agreement on which party we vote for, thankfully, the students and faculty at Brown represent a diversity of perspective when it comes to looking at specific policy areas and solutions. The differences between individual Brown students and their political beliefs (and this is true of faculty as well) are far, far greater than the differences between Brown and most other higher education communities.</p>
<p>4) For more on the student perspective on liberalism at Brown:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/642069-liberal-atmosphere-brown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/642069-liberal-atmosphere-brown.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/658604-bdh-opinion-brown-student-liberalism-brown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/658604-bdh-opinion-brown-student-liberalism-brown.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/554062-can-conservative-love-brown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/554062-can-conservative-love-brown.html</a></p>
<p>5)
</p>
<p>Really, not trying to be judgmental, eh?</p>
<p>JHU and Brown are pretty different schools with almost opposite philosophies guiding institutional decisions. Too bad the OP disappeared, or this conversation would be worth continuing beyond simmering down the hooplah of a poster gone-wild on a school he has experienced from the “town” perspective and not a student’s perspective. I prefer not to talk negatively about other schools, especially schools I don’t attend. We could play the talking crap game but it’s really not a useful way to engage in this conversation. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the individual calling Brown out for lacking a diversity of perspectives, implying that there is no meaningful constructive discourse between opposing ideologies, is in fact, resorting to rhetoric which is intentionally combative and dismissive, not at all in the spirit of rich, engaging conversation. I invite any posters on this board who would like to learn about Brown and what we believe is distinct about our culture/community to come over to the Brown CC board. We have a few current/past students over there who will be more than willing to have this discussion without bashing other schools from a position of ignorance. Brown may not be for you, and we’re ok with that, but we will try and paint an accurate picture of what, “Brown can do for you.”</p>
<p>And just one more thing…</p>
<p>Despite being so liberal, we actually have people saying stuff as ignorant like this on campus:
“As the ultimate politically correct move, the naive, arrogant, haughty Brown faculty last year decided to side with American Indians, less than 1 percent of Brown’s student body, and change the name of Columbus Day weekend to Fall Weekend,” said Keith Dellagrotta ’10, president of the Brown Republicans, in a speech at the rally.</p>
<p>“Universities like Brown seek to diminish the importance of Christianity in the founding of the United States, but they will never win that battle,” Dellagrotta said. “American Indians knew not Christianity, and thus lacked the bedrock to construct a great United States of America as we know it today. Columbus, however, was their saving grace.”</p>
<p>That’s embarrassing.</p>
<p>As for conservative production, does the name Bobby Jindal ring a bell? What about Lincoln Chafee (alright, alright… so he’s moderate)?</p>
<p>My intent was not to get into a political debate. This is not the proper forum for that. My intent was to point out differences in educational philosophy and my belief, based upon observations, that a student with conservative political beliefs and opinions would not feel welcomed into the prevailing culture at Brown University, in contrast to what I perceive to be a more tolerant and intellectually diverse environment at Hopkins. </p>
<p>Modestmelody eloquently proved my point. He said:</p>
<pre><code> “Anyone who cites the Spectator or takes David Horowitz seriously should not be taken seriously themselves…”
</code></pre>
<p>In other words, people who write for the Spectator [which is, I’m told, the only conservative periodical on campus] or who are conservative [like Horowitz] or who read their writings are idiots who are not entitled to be taken seriously. This is precisely the prevailing attitude of the culture which permeates Brown. Think of how appealing this would be to an applicant with conservative views. Very few would volunteer to subject themselves to that attitude.</p>
<p>More disturbing is the anti-intellectual attitude which this exposes. Rather than being open minded, and willing to both consider other viewpoints and examine and challenge your own beliefs and viewpoints–this attitude suggests an “I’m right and you’re wrong” approach, and “since I’m right there is no need to examine my own beliefs any further.” It is precisely this narrow-mindedness that a true liberal education is supposed to eliminate. </p>
<p>Modestmelody also suggests that the lack of ROTC at Brown is due to lack of interest. First of all, that is untrue. There are Brown students who go to Providence College for ROTC training. And if it were true, doesn’t that prove how out-of-the- mainstream the Brown culture is? You mean that Johns Hopkins, who student body is 2/3’s of that at Brown, has sufficient interest and patriotism to support a ROTC unit but Brown can’t? It doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Perhaps my favorite comments by Modestmelody was “[w]hile there may be overall agreement on which party we vote for…” That says it all. Members of one of the two major political parties in this country either choose not to attend Brown or are reluctant to admit their political beliefs. What ever happened to the desire for diversity. Is diversity to be limited to ethnic, religious or socioeconomic diversity. Shouldn’t an institution of higher learning strive to attract people with a diversity of political beliefs–and not limit debate to differences among left-of center ideas?</p>
<p>My intent was not to attack Brown. Brown is, in many ways, a fine institution. Unfortunately, its culture of political correctness is corrosive of and inconsistent with its mission to develop open minded scholars.</p>
<p>First of all, there is no mission of political correctness. Second of all, if you were familiar with either Horowitz or the Spectator, you’d know that I’m not simply dismissing “conservative political belief” but rather sensationalist material that’s more like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh than say, Irving Kristol or William F. Buckley. Did the Brown Republicans’ president strike you as someone who is not radically to the right of center? Why don’t you read some of Sean Quigley’s writing in the Spectator and Herald discussing the need for students to have guns in the dorms? While some of the pieces in the Spectator are certainly worth reading (and it has improved over time), just as frequently they write something that is only worth rolling ones eyes at-- the same way I roll my eyes at most liberal blogs.</p>
<p>I’m glad that your selective reading of my post just served to feed your confirmation bias, but I think even a casual observer will gain more out of my post than you chose to glean. </p>
<p>As for lack of interest in ROTC-- there have been never more than a few students (less than 5) taking part in recent years (I believe it’s been as low as 1 or 2 lately). The Brown Daily Herald even supports the reinstatement of ROTC [The</a> Brown Daily Herald - U. should reinstate ROTC](<a href=“http://www.browndailyherald.com/2.12228/u-should-reinstate-rotc-1.1668022]The”>http://www.browndailyherald.com/2.12228/u-should-reinstate-rotc-1.1668022) but there just doesn’t exist any motivation on the ground to change the policy because of ambivalence amongst the majority of people at Brown.</p>
<p>Perhaps my favorite comment of yours was when you rejected the notion that pushing political ideology into two parties is reductionist for the continued analysis that Brown is somehow actively stifling political debate. My freshman advisor proudly displayed signed photos of Bush on his office door, didn’t change anything about how he taught chemistry. I’m glad you dismiss my discussion of how students at Brown can be found fervently fighting for market-based innovation in schools so that you can keep your monolithic, singular view of what it means to be “politically diverse”. Look at the stark differences between Common Ground and Brown Students for Israel. </p>
<p>You can complain all you want about Brown from images that were far more accurate in the mid 90s than today, but the reality is there is a diversity of perspectives on wide ranging issues here on campus today and if you were to attend any of the guest speakers or our classes you’d see that.</p>
<p>I might point out that Brown has an active veterans society who are all very involved with Brown. I attended the founding meeting and never once did ROTC come up as an issue people were interested in. </p>
<p>I am from a very conservative place (as in: doesn’t get much more right than this place) and have been involved with conservative groups, though I am not representative of them I had no problems and (most) of them weren’t whacky at all. They were just conservative which doesn’t bother me a bit. I have known two writers from the Spectator and one was a friend. I lived right next to an editor. Now knowing that I am accustomed to people are who conservative and can discern a radical conservative who likes to push buttons from a person who is plain old conservative, I will say that the Spectator (mostly Sean) goes right off into the deep end AND they like to push buttons just for the sake of it.</p>
<p>I can understand where you’re coming from Bonanza, and you’re not the only one who has such unsubstantiated views of Brown, but I will lay it out nicely right here in the next few words, you are just plain off on this one. </p>
<p>I have heard one of my friends who is a local from Warwick debate his own friend, a local from Providence who is far left leaning, about a number of things…on a pretty regular basis…and they still go out and play trivia together on the same team. This is a common thing at Brown. It may not be as common as it seems to a local who has a <em>less informed</em> opinion on what it’s like at Brown, but it is.</p>