<p>I hear alot about Columbia's left-wing students being a bit too...extreme. Is this really that out of control? Is President Bollinger a bit biased? He has a handful of supreme court cases against him on issues of diversity (whites accusing him of too much minority favor), and when he invited Iran's president, he didnt really stay neutral and called him a cruel and petty dictator. (although i agree) Are these a part of heavily publicized features of him, or is he actually a nice guy? are the liberals too radical there? please describe, thanks! :)</p>
<p>(i'm a liberal, but I'm scared of radicals)</p>
<p>(minority here, but i guess it wouldnt help too much because im asian :/)</p>
<p>CAMPUS POLITICS: A pre-election Spectator poll of 246 randomly selected undergraduates showed 71 percent favored Al Gore for President, 16 percent were for Ralph Nader and 7 percent were for George W. Bush, with 2 percent "other" and 4 percent undecided.</p>
<p>There are a few crazies. They will make themselves obvious from time to time with protests and other shenanigans. They by no means comprise a substantial portion of the population.</p>
<p>Bollinger's remarks towards Ahmadinejad would not be disagreed with by either a typical liberal or a typical conservative. Sometimes not everything is black and white.</p>
<p>"(i'm a liberal, but I'm scared of radicals)"</p>
<p>you're like most of the student population, they're college students in new york, so columbia is predominantly liberal, and there are several far left, and a small proportion of activists but there are also many libertarians and many moderates, a proportion of conservatives too. Bollinger isn't far left by any means, he is actually pretty on target for a college campus. He did severely denounce the minuteman protesters when they stormed the stage. He might hold liberal views, but he's a good, balanced president and the only thing that stands out about him is that he is brilliant.</p>
<p>I've found that while there are a <em>few</em> crazies, they generally don't make themselves known that much unless a situation warrants it (ie hunger strike, the entirety of the 60s, etc). Its just that 9 out of 10 people here (of the 44 people on my floor, there are 2 republicans) are liberal and favor Democrat policies. The only somewhat skewing factor is that the republicans here <em>know</em> that they are the minority, and thus tend to overcompensate by becoming much more vocal about their republicanism; I have a few republican friends here who have said that they became much more conservative after coming to Columbia. Its extremely heated right now thanks to the election (oh dear god just 2 more days)...most floors watched the debates together and its the main source of conversation around campus. I suspect things will get a much less sectionalized after the election (and if you are applying now that means you won't have to deal with this **** until you are a senior).</p>
<p>Yeah, pretty much what everyone has said. I actually find a lot more politically apathetic people than hardcore liberals around my neck of the woods. Meaning that while they are democrats and view conservative ideologies with a certain level of contempt, they're not going to go apesheet discussing it. They prefer to discuss other things....which is refreshing these days. Passive liberals as I call them. </p>
<p>Though after getting too many pollings around campus I bought myself a McCain t-shirt which resulting in quite a few death glares and offers of debates (I'm black).</p>
<p>I personally find professors to be much more annoying in political discussions. I mean it's not a poli scie course, we have a 35% midterm next week, are two lectures behind syllabus.... shut your tenured mouth about the old day elections and impart knowledge already!</p>
<p>But of course you get the suck-ups and the individuals chiming in and wasting a good 20 mins of class time. At 9am a Monday morning! Are you kidding me?!</p>
<p>You find them only in liberal arts classes, and predominantly in seminars - trying to look smart or something as if it's going to affect their grade, because they got through high school sucking up too. Engineers don't bother with that BS because they know the effort isn't worth a tinker's damn.</p>
<p>columbia's atmosphere on campus is considerably less radical-liberal than berkeley. in berkeley they stage protests in favor of vegatarian for chrissake. white people riot in protest against the perceived oppression of blacks, while 5 miles away in El Cerrito and Richmond, all the poor blacks the Berkeleyites are trying to protect... pretty much don't care.</p>
<p>I would say Columbia is somewhat more conservative than Harvard (and certainly Brown), but a little more liberal than Princeton and probably Yale.</p>
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I would say Columbia is somewhat more conservative than Harvard (and certainly Brown), but a little more liberal than Princeton and probably Yale.
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<p>Are you talking about undergraduate student body, or the institutional characteristics of the school (faculty, administration stances, etc.)? I would hardly say Columbia is more conservative than anything.</p>
<p>^administration stances are highly comparable to other top schools. faculty are all quite liberal like academics everywhere other than the chicago school of economics. Students are liberal, but not as liberal as brown or berkeley or NYU or as liberal as populations in most top liberal arts schools. Princeton, duke and g-town would all be more conservative. Chicago is as liberal, just more polarized with the economics kids being free-ish market and liberal arts kids being highly idealistic.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Are you talking about undergraduate student body, or the institutional characteristics of the school (faculty, administration stances, etc.)? I would hardly say Columbia is more conservative than anything.
<p>Is Columbia radically liberal? That question brings up a story from my day today...</p>
<p>My friend is a library aid for one class period each day. Today, a woman who was helping out asked her where she was applying to school. She listed a few regional state schools (UT, OU, etc.) and then some a bit further away (University of Colorado - Boulder, Denver University). </p>
<p>The lady responded by saying, "Oh, you don't want to go to Colorado. They're too liberal there!"
My friend then said, "Colorado, too liberal? Right. ... Anyway, I have a friend applying to Columbia."
Of course, the woman then said, "What is he thinking! They are way too liberal! He does not want to go to Columbia!"</p>
<p>When my friend told me about this conversation, I didn't know how to react. Last time I checked, college choice was a decision of the student, not a complete stranger.</p>