Not necessarily. However, some of the noisiest anti-immigration activists are racist or closely associated with racism*, so it should not be surprising that these activists and their vocal opponents who see them as what they are tend to dominate the immigration controversy. Relatively civil discussion about economic and other effects of varying levels of immigration tends to be ignored when fights about race and ethnicity dominate the topic.
Yes. However, it is likely that you will also be ignored when trying to discuss immigration’s non race or ethnicity related effects, because of how most immigration-related politics is based on views about race and ethnicity.
Whenever this topic comes up, I always ask: what makes you think the uni is liberal?
I go to a"liberal" university and I see stuff about my school pop up on conservative media that literally maybe 3 people on campus know about. So what people think they know about my school doesn’t match what’s on the ground.
I teach in a “liberal” department and the nature of the courses I teach ensure that I know most of my students’ politics by the end of the semester. I always have conservative students and they always feel comfortable in the “liberal” class/school.
@romanigypsyeyes - Comfortable, yes, but do they feel free to speak their mind or pursue the things they want to pursue. My son is at a very liberal leaning LAC. His professors seem to be much more open minded than his classmates. Some of the issues he has had with professors have been outside what you would consider “hot button” classes for politics. He had a professor in a foreign language class question his sources. The professor ultimately agreed that his source was legitimate as the facts he cited were widely reported.
It bothers me is that he is not choosing one major (political science) because he feels that he will not be able to tolerate three more years of his fellow classmates being disparaging to him. He will choose another major (history) where diversity of thought seems more prevalent. He doesn’t say as much about the professors other than instances where it affects his grade. I think that is because it is frowned upon at his school to talk about grades with his classmates so he needs to vent. He chooses me as his outlet. I think he can whine about his classmates to other classmates when he needs to do so.
However, what bothers me more is what I perceive as threats to conservatives based on identifying themselves as conservatives. This happened at his school’s meeting to craft its honor code. The students were pushing to add clauses to the honor code that allowed referrals to the honor council for political views. Naturally, those in the minority did not want to face honor code violations based on political views. There was a student who spoke who thanked conservatives for outing themselves. I see that as a threat in the context it was made. The President of the college did not allow that provision to stand in the final honor code.
The comments by his fellow students really bothered ME. I see them as a thread because students who were om favor of allowing honor council referrals due to political views made them. I asked my son if he wanted to transfer to another school and he said no, there were crazies at every school, and not all of them are liberals. He has responded by becoming more involved in the Republican Club (he is on the executive committee) and by meeting with members of the college administration to make them aware that although the vast majority of students are liberals, there are other points of view on campus. He finds more openness among those people. I guess that is the beauty of being at a small LAC.
In most cases, when we say a college is liberal or conservative, we mean that a majority of people (or vocal minority) at that college seem to be liberal or conservative. Very few American colleges, per se, hold institutional policies and doctrines that are consistently one or the other. Most of the ones that do seem to be conservative, not liberal.
A liberal who chooses to attend for example a Christian college may be at greater risk of being socially outcast or having his opinions censured than a conservative who chooses to attend a typical state flagship. If during a classroom or dorm room discussion you express strong conservative viewpoints about abortion, gun control, or immigration, then you may be challenged to defend those beliefs. This is how college works. However, you should be safe from curricular red lines that restrict exploration of mainstream conservative beliefs (as some Christian colleges restrict teaching of evolution in biology classes). Your college won’t ban the Young Republican club.
I’m not saying that liberals necessarily are more open-minded or less censorious than conservatives.
But, especially at many selective colleges and universities, relatively liberal viewpoints seem to have prevailed in the court of campus opinion. Therefore you may need to make an extra effort to marshal good evidence and arguments for your own viewpoints. This is something you want to learn how to do anyway, isn’t it?
I very much doubt you know how your conservative students feel, @romani. In a privileged position as a faculty member, it is highly unlikely you are their confidant, and you are significantly older, at least to the student’s perspective.
There’s been a recent study of over 8,688 tenure-track, Ph.D.-holding professors at 51 of the top 60 liberal arts colleges listed in U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 rankings.
There is not even anything close to balance. Note that in the case of female or minority faculty representation, it is taken as self-evident that colleges and universities should take steps to increase representation to reflect the student bodies. Are there any efforts to increase ideological diversity to represent student political proclivities?
@roycroftmom – Spot on. The lack of awareness by those in academia here is surprising. The standard tactic for conservatives in “left” classes, even back 30+ years ago, was to simply regurgitate what the professor wanted to hear, get the grade, and never see them again.
Seriously, do professors for those classes not understand this? Not realize the gross power imbalance?
@SatchelSF Is it reasonable to assume the vast majority of those professors are highly educated? If so, it is well-known that increases in education level correlate with an increased percentage of liberal/left/Democrat self-identification.
From Pew: “Democrats lead by 22 points (57%-35%) in leaned party identification among adults with post-graduate degrees. The Democrats’ edge is narrower among those with college degrees or some post-graduate experience (49%-42%), and those with less education (47%-39%). Across all educational categories, women are more likely than men to affiliate with the Democratic Party or lean Democratic. The Democrats’ advantage is 35 points (64%-29%) among women with post-graduate degrees, but only eight points (50%-42%) among post-grad men.”
Sure, @ski_racer, education is part of it. But those Pew figures (57% to 35% among postgraduate degree holders) don’t even begin to explain 10-to-1 ratios, as I am sure you would acknowledge. Could be that the more conservative leaning postgraduate degree holders prefer to make money in the real economy and so avoid the academy
Also, note from the study I linked that there is a tremendous difference between female overrepresentation (21 to 1 in favor of Democrat Party) and male (7 to 1 democrats). Aren’t the males highly educated as well?
There are expected splits as well in the sciences versus humanities, with humanities far more left-leaning.
One interesting aspect of the study is that there appears to be a higher tilting towards democrat affiliation the higher the prestige tier of the college.
It’s worth looking through the numbers One of the weaknesses with the study, though, is that there is no real way of getting at the inclinations of faculty members who do not identify with either major party. No doubt some good portion of those lean conservative but are afraid to reveal that
Another tidbit from the study that I found interesting. The study author computed the numbers of Democrats versus Republicans at each of the individual academic departments within the 51 schools studied:
Unless you major in one of the STEM fields, odds are that you might never encounter a registered Republican professor!
"It’s worth looking through the numbers One of the weaknesses with the study, though, is that there is no real way of getting at the inclinations of faculty members who do not identify with either major party. No doubt some good portion of those lean conservative but are afraid to reveal that "
Satchel, this is a wonderful conclusion but I’d love some evidence of that fear. Or- evidence that “a good portion” lean conservative.
There are many people in America who vote regularly, hold very firm political and economic beliefs, but don’t identify with either major party. Do you think they live in fear? I have many academics in my family, and they have a wide range of beliefs and affiliations. Many of them are “fearless” in its literal meaning— absolutely without fear. Many of them are in academia precisely because of that- they do research, they teach, they publish, they mentor. Some of them believe that if they were in similar jobs in a corporate environment, the “sucking up” and the politics (not the policy kind, the “you have to have face time if you want to get promoted kind”) would sap the energy they want to devote to their work.
I’d love evidence of these fearful professors who secretly vote conservative but are afraid of an anonymous survey.
@blossom - You are misunderstanding the study methodology. There was no survey, anonymous or not. All the data came from publicly available sources: lists of professors provided by colleges on websites and the like, matched to publicly available party registration data. (See the methodology under “Data” and “Nonregistration” headings.) Particularly in humanities fields, there is a real social cost to be borne by those who register Republican.
Here is a fantastic paradigm for understanding what has been happening on college campuses over the last few decades, which helps explain this social cost. In these short excepts from a recent lecture at Duke, Jonathan Haidt outlines a paradigm of society moving from an “honor” culture through a “dignity” culture and now to a “victimhood culture.” Really well worth watching imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H20jwYq8WI
So, why is that a problem? The research quoted above shows that as people acquire higher academic levels, the percentage of registered Republicans decline. According to Pew, the largest percentage of voters identify as independent. It makes perfect sense that there are fewer professors who are registered Republicans.
What are your stats? What are the costs in-state? We live in CA and our schools are not cheap. That said, even state schools are more expensive OOS. BUT, we let my son apply OOS and with good stats 4.3 weighted GPA 1450ish SAT, he got merit at the 2 privates and one OOS state school which he ended up at, because it turned out to be the same price as in-state (we didn’t get a dime in state).
All that said, unless you are going to Cal Berkeley, I’m guessing that the student population isn’t much different than your high school. Most aren’t politically active, they are just louder and have more time to rant. Your professors are less worried about giving their opinion, but it’s up to you to question if they have a valid point. I was a conservative (born that way) at a liberal college in a liberal state (came from a fairly conservative state and was not politically active, but that was 30 years ago) and my professors were liberal, and their VIEWS didn’t resonate but they were still good teachers.
If it’s an issue, even on the most liberal campuses, there is YAF and/or Turning Point. Or a libertarian student group.
Don’t go into it assuming you’ll have a problem, but listen to your instincts when you visit.
As I mentioned earlier, I think the shouting down does go both ways. However, I believe it is more equal in Wash DC and on TV with political pundits. On college campuses, not as equal. Yes, you can find some examples of conservatives trying to silence liberal views. But IMO liberals trying to stifle conservative speech is much more prevalent and, like @SatchelSF said, you need only turn on the news or pickup up a paper on many days to see examples of conservative speakers on campus being canceled due to actual violence or threats of violence. Berkeley is the most obvious example, but there are many others where the event is either shut down (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/01/14/protests-shutdown-milo-yiannopoulos-pharma-bro-at-uc-davis.html) or the protesters admit their intent is to disrupt and shut it down, even when they’re not successful
(https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2017/2/16/outside-iop-event-lewandwoski-students-protested-i/)
For the record, @droppedit is spot on. Our D attends a Top 20 school that is probably closer to left-center than far-left in terms of the student body. When she left for college last year, we told her – remember, when you are writing papers, etc for class, that the eyes reading them are most likely liberal and your views may affect your grade. So write what they want to see and keep your real views to yourself. Our conservative friends said the same thing to their kids Of course that’s terrible to have to feel that way and to have to say that to your kid, but we feel that reflects reality. The world of academia is what it is, not as we wish it would be.
Speaking of UCB, here is a 2017 clip from a humanities class, most of whose students were just trying to take their midterm exam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZKRz1QXtC4
The most ironically laughable part is 1:28, when one SJW explains how the white students just need to “shut up,” and then another SJW turns around at 1:43 and accuses the students of trying to silence them.
I love that video. Not quite as iconic as the “Legend of Trigglypuff” video (SJW from Hampshire College acting out at U Mass Amherst), but close.
@roycroftmom I appreciate that you speak for my students who literally come talk to me when they don’t need to in office hours and many who have asked me for letters of rec and whatnot.
But, y’know, what do I know? I only spend months with these students during and AFTER I have control of their grades.
