<p>". . . donations from conservative organizations to various institutions may be indicative of a larger trend toward taking back higher education from its supposed liberal leanings."</p>
<p>I like that word "supposed" . . .</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://cornellsun.com/node/32075%5DConservative">http://cornellsun.com/node/32075]Conservative</a> Group</p>
<p>Yea! I am tired of trying to find a college for my children that will not indoctrinate them into a liberal mindset. Whoever said that conservatives were closed minded need to look at the way professors/teachers bias our children toward liberalism. Good example - Virginia teachers all wearing blue to support Obama. If conservatives tried this they would be hung! I am all for open discussion, but teachers/professors should not lead their thinking one way or the other!</p>
<p>In the 2000 election, 90+% of Ivy League profs identified themselves as Democrat or liberal. That is a just odd in my opinion. There should be more balance.</p>
<p>Not suprising - my daughter - a highly qualified student did not even look at the Ivies or a lot of top schools because their culture is just too far left. Lest anyone think she couldn't get in them - she will probably get big scholarship offers at most schools she applies to. A surprising lack of conversation on this thread - what does that say about the posters here?</p>
<p>I could write a book on the current financial meltdown and its DIRECT RELATIONSHIP to liberal government policies. If we survive this mess, and that is a BIG IF at present, we can dissect what happened and EXPOSE IT.</p>
<p>Yes, there was outrageous greed and hubris (by some Democrats at the helm of some WallStreet banking firms), but the liberal government policies essentially opened the door to it all. </p>
<p>We have been so inundated with liberalism in society that it is now commonplace to label people as racists and nazis if they oppose any liberal politician. Conservative students fear speaking out publicly and writing papers that are conservative for fear of grade retribution.</p>
<p>We are witnessing historic events. And the media is pushing one candidate and trashing the Republican ticket.</p>
<p>Sometimes I fear for our country. I really do.</p>
<p>interesting. why are people so afraid that their supposedly highly intelligent kids could be so easily swayed and changed by the college they attend? this contradiction belies a basic prejudice against liberalism in colleges and in general, not their effect on kids. funny how people who are so obnoxiously proud of their "free" society do an about turn the moment free society doesn't go their way.</p>
<p>and, by the way, please don't forget that Republicans were the geniuses who brilliantly told everyone else that regulation is unAmerican and evil. oh, was Henry Paulson conveniently not a culprit himself at the helm of GS?</p>
<p>and seriously, are you even kidding? "liberal government policies" do not call for the limited government and limited market regulation that caused this mess we're in. please, at least READ UP - if you know how to. think about that before you think about writing a book. don't try to run before you learn how to crawl :)</p>
<p>well, now we get to the root of it - socialism! I am proud of our country - men and women have died so that you could enjoy the freedom to speak your mind -
Not to worry - if you get your way Obama will have us all headed toward socialism as quickly as he can. Why are they so afraid of people who still believe in the principles that this country was founded on? We are meant to take care of each other - not government taking care of us. This bailout is another example of people not being about to make a decision and being taken "care of" too much. We have created a class of dependent thinkers- not independent, responsible citizens.</p>
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Not to worry - if you get your way Obama will have us all headed toward socialism as quickly as he can.
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<p>Firstly, I want to thank you for that extremely enlightening and obviously well-considered thought. It's clear that you have an extremely independent mind and did not just parrot the nearest conservative talk radio. And we're not heading to any sort of hell under McCain because....?</p>
<p>Anyway, if you want to turn this thread into another McCain v Obama ego trip, please go do it somewhere else.</p>
<p>There is hope.It's been going strong since 1775.An oasis of virile,conservative,traditional liberal arts flourishes in Virginia.Hampden-Sydney College has proudly offered a solid education,sans pc,as an all men's school since 1775.</p>
<p>Hey Miltonmom, </p>
<p>Why don't you try posting something with substance?</p>
<p>"A surprising lack of conversation on this thread - what does that say about the posters here?"</p>
<p>Uhm, maybe because the thread just posted this morning? </p>
<p>You sound like an ignorant, arrogant jack ass. I don't know where you get off saying that Ivy League schools and LACs are too left for your daughter and that if we elect Obama we're all damned... Are you even FAMILIAR with the republican agenda? Banning stem cell research (which, btw, has advanced to a stage where you no longer need embryonic stem cells but can instead use cells from the patients for which the treatments are intended), overthrowing Roe vs. Wade (good idea there, let's let rape and incest victims bear more pain and also let's let teenagers and other women that are unprepared/unwilling to be mothers bring in more life to the world that won't be cared for)... sounds smart to me... not. Let's just regress in all the progress we've made. Pretty soon, they'll be stoning homosexuals and banning interracial marriage... You'd love that though...</p>
<p>Coming from you, I'm certain that your daughter probably doesn't possess the intelligence to make it at an Ivy, so you'd better hope Sh! t State U that's she's applying to will embrace her backwoods, unprogressive, Christian-proselytizing, "OMG Obama is BLACK" attitude and give her admittance, much less a scholarship.</p>
<p>BTW, Miltonmom, I consider myself pretty conservative, but I also consider myself reasonable. Have a good day, good luck with D.</p>
<p>Oh, my goodness. It's pretty disheartening to see how things degenerate so quickly into name-calling.</p>
<p>I agree that the liberal bias in the more elite university settings seems out of hand. It does not stop, however, at the "elite" level!</p>
<p>My daughter is currently a senior at an Ivy campus and has experienced first-hand the refusal of her many very left-leaning friends to listen to any point of view that differs from their own. And their mode of operation tends to be along the lines of just making fun of the opposing side rather than really listening to and debating real issues. </p>
<p>She got to experience first-hand the hypocrisy of the liberal student body when the two presidential candidates were on campus and McCain was booed for saying something that Obama later reiterated. When Obama said it, though, they were silent.</p>
<p>Interesting. I see a number of Liberals posting here on CC doing everything they can to avoid schools that have a "conservative" thinking student body. I often wonder why they seem to have such an issue about being around those who might hold a different point of view as well. </p>
<p>I can relate to conservatives wanting to be careful though. My subjective experience is that liberals tend to get more hostile when they are challenged. I have seen it. I know it can go the other way also, but as I said, in my experience it has been tougher going for conservatives in a liberal environment. Undoubtedly, others will point to opposite experiences. </p>
<p>I suppose it depends on the specifics. For example, when you throw religion into the mix, discussions can become much more polarized. I realize some people don't make a distinction between their religion and politics. </p>
<p>Personally, I prefer educational institutions that support some level of balance where students can challenge and be challenged without the risk of being ostrasized. I think there are too many places where that is not the case. I am informed by my Ds that their profs, for the most part, don't overtly express their particular political leanings, and students have no problems discussing opposing views in class, whatever they may be. I think that is best in terms of them getting a well-rounded education.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I can relate to conservatives wanting to be careful though. My subjective experience is that liberals tend to get more hostile when they are challenged. I have seen it. I know it can go the other way also, but as I said, in my experience it has been tougher going for conservatives in a liberal environment.
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</p>
<p>I think iheartpenn just kinda made my point with the post above... :(</p>
<p>
Wow, is this typical of liberals? (in my personal experience, it often is) Why it that you are permitted to have your opinions but you can't allow others to have theirs without trash-talking their ideas, name-calling, criticizing their religions and denigrating their children? And nobody brought up race but you. Btw, thanks for denigrating public universities, but like all of academia, they are overwhelmingly liberal too. </p>
<p>Note that on another thread iheartpenn says that Penn is the most insular experience she has ever had and that those who don't "fit in" should prepare to be ostracized.<br>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/514468-social-life-transfers-upenn.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/514468-social-life-transfers-upenn.html</a>
Not great publicity for ivies or for liberals in general. Makes me glad to call myself conservative.</p>
<p>Of COURSE academic types are going to tend to be more liberal than conservative. It's not that colleges only hire liberal people, it's that liberal people are far more likely to go into academia than conservative people. Why? I'll give some fuel for both fires here; they don't like dealing with the "real world" and/or they're "more intelligent." </p>
<p>And for the last damned time, let's seperate liberal economic policy and liberal social policy. There's little overlap and it's disingenoes to everyone to assume that just because someone is liberal socially they're also liberal economically. Or vice versa. A lot of people would consider me exceptionally liberal socially but I'm still conservative economically. The fact that we allow the same people to make our social decisions as make our financial decisions still baffles me, although the alternative is more government and who want's that.</p>
<p>And when you go to college your views on a lot of things are going to change. And when you go to the "real world" your views are going to change again. If you're so scared of changing your mind about something that you're going to pass up an education at a top university that you like just because they don't all agree with you then you don't deserve to be in that university to begin with. There are exceptions, such as very small liberal arts schools where you actually are unlikely to find too many people that agree with you or super-conservative schools like BJU. Other than that though, yeah, at college people say a lot of things you disagree with. I had a feminazi history professor and the guy a couple dorms down from me hung a Confederate flag in his window, but I'm as misogynistic as ever and still don't tell "get 'er done" jokes. You have to learn to consider what other people are saying and either file it away as "worthy of consideration" or "bat***** insane" and go from there.</p>
<p>"I could write a book on the current financial meltdown and its DIRECT RELATIONSHIP to liberal government policies."</p>
<p>I don't know why this isn't brought up more....freddy ad Fanny were created or at some point existed in order to generate "politically correct" rather than "financially correct" mortgage loans. These institutions were backed by the government therefore the element or risk was removed and when questioned about their investments Barney Frank et. al would offer nothing but reassurance that Fann and Freddie were solid.</p>
<p>since when do people's beliefs define our conduct.</p>
<p>Yes, many people seem to forget about Freddie and Fannie. What I have found is that conservatives and liberals alike are (stereotyping here) very much closed minded. However it seems that conservatives get a lot more flak for being closed minded than liberals do.</p>
<p>Of course, this point of view may only hold for me because i frequent very liberal sites often (Digg, for an example) and we are in the middle of a Obama/Liberal revolution.</p>
<p>...Name-calling, abortion debating, and finger pointing about the meltdown will do little to foster a productive discussion about "intellectual diversity."</p>
<p>I am a progressive. I would go so far as to say that I am radically far left of the American mainstream (though I'd be a left-leaning moderate in many other "developed" nations). </p>
<p>In my college search, I found myself drawn mainly to Midwestern LACs, though I also briefly considered Brown, Cornell, College of William & Mary, Swarthmore, and Williams. My task before my senior year of high school was to decide if and to what school I wanted to apply early decision. It came down to Carleton and Oberlin. </p>
<p>Let me tell you, I love Oberlin's passionate political culture. But even though I am drawn to that activist environment, I felt that a campus where I was on the right side of the spectrum, where all political debate takes place between far left and farther left was not a campus where I would have the most productive conversations. Carleton is by no means right-leaning (only in the constellation of its peers-- Macalester, Oberlin, Kenyon, and Grinnell could it possibly be construed as such), but conservatives have a presence on campus. Even if I disagree with them, it's a chance to participate in productive dialogue and, at the very least, to recall the pragmatic limits to making some of my ideas reality.</p>
<p>There are limits, however, to the type of conservatism that I'd be able to stomach in my daily life. I'm a bisexual atheist who has had premarital sex. While not every conservative would take issue with those things, I would not feel comfortable in an environment where I have to justify my sexuality or gender expression or religion time and time again to folks who think I'm going to hell-- I had enough of that in Missouri, please and thank you. I also would not thrive in an environment where interracial dating is frowned upon or where heterosexist or racist or sexist slurs are aired. Challenge my politics because I appreciate that, but leave my identity alone.</p>
<p>Many Christians, I'm sure, would be equally uncomfortable in an environment where all traditionally religious folks are deemed sheep or dumb or some such nonsense or where they were judged for NOT having premarital sex or for not drinking. No one should have to justify their religious choices or their lifestyle (insofar as it doesn't hurt anyone else) to their peers. </p>
<p>About liberal bias in the classroom: </p>
<p>I see it, but only kind of. When it comes right down to it, making the cornerstone of history, for example, Western Civ type classes is just a plain misrepresentation of the past. Most of the world does not fall under the banner of Greece, Rome, and Europe and many other EXTREMELY influential geographical areas are not given enough attention even now. The history of China is STILL woefully understudied given A. its influence and B. how many damn people it affects. </p>
<p>One of those conservative lists of "liberal" classes lambasted Carleton for offering Colonial Latin American history, calling it "marginal." How on earth, especially for US students, is the history of our hemisphere (including our southern neighbor) marginal? How is the union of West and East, the moment of contact between far flung portions of humanity "marginal?" </p>
<p>When it come right down to it, I know more about the senators of republican Rome than I do about all of India's history, liberal education notwithstanding. Which is more relevant today....? </p>
<p>Answer: not Rome.</p>
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In the 2000 election, 90+% of Ivy League profs identified themselves as Democrat or liberal. That is a just odd in my opinion. There should be more balance.
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I don't see how that is odd. More educated people tend to be more liberal, so it only makes sense that on average, college professors would be more liberal than the average population. And how do you define "balance"? The divide between Democrats and Republicans is just an abitrary one.</p>