Liberalism (or lack there of) at UVA.

<p>It's interesting to read the students' take on this. Without spending significant amounts of time on other campuses, I think some of you don't realize how different this place can be sometimes. I've found UVA students to be very aware of events outside the campus bubble. </p>

<p>Not counting UVA...
Number of schools where I've seen daily protests around an issue: 1
Number of schools where I've seen a sit in: 0
Number of schools where I've seen news of an event spread on club listserves within an hour: 0
Number of schools where I've seen a fully student-run adjudication and sanction process: 0</p>

<p>Give yourselves some credit. Sure, some students may be apathetic, but you all aren't clueless. I think you're above average when it comes to awareness and activism. I've seen student apathy first hand and it does not look like what I see at UVA.</p>

<p>I'm a liberal myself and almost all of the conservative people I've met in UVA are stubborn. I would say the amount of liberals-conservatives are 50-50. But please do yourself a favor and stay away from UVA if you are really liberal. Unless you are going to live in Brown College.</p>

<p>What in the world do you mean by "stubborn" in this context?</p>

<p>Dean J, they are actually liberal minded UVA students that care about worker's wages and social issues. All these people protesting against living wage are against them and prefer to keep to traditions. It's pathetic.</p>

<p>Stubborn as in they don't see the importance of other views apart from conservative ones to which they stick. They think they're always right but they are so blind to changes that go elsewhere.</p>

<p>You should cut yourself a few slices of some tolerance pie. Something tells me that you don't appreciate or respect political views which differ from your own.</p>

<p>50/50 doesn't cut it, there's no institution in the world that is evenly divided in that manner among purely liberals or conservatives. </p>

<p>In actuality, according to self classification on facebook, only about 20-25% of this university classifies itself as 'conservative', while liberals make up about 1/3. We had this discussion awhile ago when someone else tried to claim UVA was a conservative school. It gets kind of ridiculous on how much people try to skew the political spectrum of UVA because it doesn't live up to their 90% liberal standards.</p>

<p>"Something tells me that you don't appreciate or respect political views which differ from your own."</p>

<p>Ah, one of the ironies of some liberals. Open mindedness, yet many aren't. Of course, things on a similar vein can be said about conservatives as well.</p>

<p>Meh, tenniscraze seems to have the problem of not being able to see beyond the tip of his own nose. There's no point in arguing with him - he's too stubborn.</p>

<p>Actually my numbers were off from what I remembered them to be. I found the list I saved, though.</p>

<p>Females (about 55% of UVA)
5% very liberal
24% liberal
16% moderate
11% conservative
1% very conservative
1% libertarian
4% apathetic<br>
2% other</p>

<p>Males (About 45% of UVA)
4% very liberal
18% liberal
18% moderate
14% conservative
2% very conservative
2% libertarian
4% other
3% apathetic</p>

<p>This is out of all the people on facebook- many do not even care to list their political preference, if they actually have one.</p>

<p>No, I'm not BSing this time.</p>

<p>Tenniscraze, you are a great guy! except sometimes you are a little inflexible. :)</p>

<p>I'm gonna have to quote something cavalier302 said some time ago: People can be deeper than they appear, if you give them chances.</p>

<p>Here's how an individual with subpart maturity looks at things: he/she sees a wasted guy wearing a bow tie at a football game, and automatically assume he's conservative, uptight and he only cares about drinking. this individual will not have interaction with the wasted dude, because he/she doesn't think the wasted dude is worth his/her time.</p>

<p>Let's see.. so if we give everyone all the chances they need, then everyone is "deep" :) But the question remains: How much chances do they actually give themselves?</p>

<p>No, they only 'can' be, but it's hard to know if they aren't given a chance in the first place.</p>

<p>Anyway, that should displace the foolish claims that UVA is a 'conservative' university.</p>

<p>oh lord, not this debate again :)</p>

<p>um speaking for the class of 2010 :) I thought since im a prospective Political Philosophy major, a devout liberal working for the Democratic National Committee, political activist and very interested in this topic myself...id weigh in on this topic</p>

<p>uhum...i checked facebook and calculated that out of the approximately 1250 people out of 3100 in the freshman class on facebook (which statistically is very accurate)...this is the breakdown of the class of 2010 that is starting this August</p>

<p>Very Liberal or Liberal => 32.4%
Moderate => 28.1%
Very Conservative or Conservative => 23.7%</p>

<p>So Liberals win! :) I'd say the school is Center-Left...u know, i think in my opinion, if u go to a school where everyone agrees with us (liberals), there dissipates a motivation to stay active and raise your voice, while when u are in an environment like Virginia which id say at the current political climate is pretty moderate or just slightly to the right as a STATE, but as a University, its better to have such a diversity of voices cus u got a more motivation to speak up which of course is beneficial to all :) thats my take on things.....plus i have MANY FAR LEFT friends going to UVA and according to FACEBOOK, theres a super majority (66%+) huge amount of people who are very liberal or liberal or moderates who sympathize strongly with the left so dont worry about it :)</p>

<p>^ well said. who wants to go to a school where everyone thinks, or even leans, the same way...no fun in that ;)</p>

<p>Liberals and conservatives both have a strong prescense on grounds. Both groups are rational, intelligent, and prepared to defend their views. A good example is with the living wage campaign--I had (still have) a lot of trouble making up my mind as to which side I agree with in that debate. The liberals argued that the workers needed to make more money in order to live comfortably, but the conservatives argued that $10.72 was an unrealistic amount that the school, as a business, would have trouble affording. Both sides were articulate and made excellent points, if you're openminded enough to listen to them both. I came here pretty conservative and I've changed my mind on some issues or become more certain of others thanks to the things I've heard and seen.</p>

<p>You'll be able to find a home among both liberals and conservatives here, and honestly, politics just aren't a big deal in friendship-making in my experience. I would say first off, don't let politics be a big factor for you, and second, there is plenty of room for liberals at UVA--there are tons of 'em. As for me, my political views are all over the map, and I've found support here for every different idea I hold, and support for its counterpoint.</p>

<p>I think it's pretty stupid of the administration to decline a living wage when the majority (76%) of UVa voted yes on the referendum - raising the tuition fee by a certain amount.</p>

<p>(a) The majority of the univerisity did not vote "yes" on the referendum. The majority of those who voted voted yes, and many people were ignorant of the issue at the time of voting. </p>

<p>(b) The administration isn't "stupid". They're highly educated and highly experienced managers who have some idea of what they're doing. They're a large part of why UVA, despite limited funds and public school status, is a major player in academia today.</p>

<p>Regardless, that has nothing to do with the political climate at The University.</p>

<p>Do you really think it's a great idea for the administration to go with the majority on campus at all times? I do not. I really, really do not. Going with the whim of a campus full of college students seems to be generally a ridiculous concept. I don't think the university is a democracy with the students as the voter base, and just because something is desired by the majority doesn't always make it wise. I think this has been demonstrated time and time again throughout history. We want the administration in place because they are supposed to be WISER than the students. Having the responsibility of decision making fall to the students completely negates the valuable education, experience, and expertise which the university staff members possess.</p>

<p>living wage was so dumb.</p>

<p>10.72? NO!</p>