One harbinger of the future thinks it’s time:
But which conservatives?
Economics/fiscal conservatism and libertarianism are probably present in non-trivial amounts, especially in economics and business departments. But some forms of social conservatism, like creation biology or worrying about the changing ethnic composition of the country, are not likely to get advocates of such a warm welcome in most universities.
Regarding military veterans, here is some information on veterans enrolled in the state universities in California:
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/default/files/ucday2015_veterans.pdf (UC)
https://www.calstate.edu/SAS/documents/va-10_CSU-Student-Veteran-Research-Project-Spring-2011.pdf (CSU)
Note that UC reports that 60% of veterans on campus came as transfer students. The CSU report did not mention that, but noted that veteran transfers had higher retention and graduation rates than overall transfers, but veteran frosh had lower retention and graduation rates than overall frosh.
So all veterans are conservative? That’s news to me. I know several who are not including H (who is a military academy grad).
As for rural students, I can tell you as someone who grew up in small town midwest and has many ties there with family and friends, political views there are all over the spectrum.
I see a lot of stereotyping in this article.
No.
Agree with fallgirl that this is a very stereotypes article.
Further, AA shouldn’t be on ideological traits. Those can, and likely will, change throughout your academic career.
Mr R came from a conservative town and very conservative family. He voted for McCain. Within a few months at our university, he was already pretty far left after being exposed to people and ideas he never had been before.
Things like growing up poor or black are never going to change. Those are experiences you can bring with you.
^ This. I was personally fairly conservative when I started college, but became more left leaning as time went on. This was not due to so-called “liberal professors” (I don’t recall any political discussions in my classes), but as an exposure such as romani’s H also experienced.
This may seem to contradict my previous post where I stated that there are diverse political views in a small town but not really. I grew up with parents who were very conservative, some of my friends parents were not. In addition the area I have lived in has changed since I grew up there - it is still rural but much more diverse. And there is much more information available via the internet. For these reasons there are a variety of attitudes there.
And lets face it, if kids think being conservative will help them get into a top college, a lot of Eddie Haskell types will join the Young Republicans and other conservative groups to boost their odds.
I think some clarification is in order of what the Wesleyan presisdent, Michael Roth, was saying. The Roth quote about “affirmative action” is from an op-ed Roth wrote in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Opening of the Liberal Mind.” The link is here although it’s probably behind a paywall. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-opening-of-the-liberal-mind-1494515186. But the idea was not affirmative action for high school young Republicans, but rather of bringing conservative ideas and perspectives into the discussion. His focus was as much on faculty as on students, as well as speakers.
Here’s a partial quote:
Re: #6
Looks like they are mostly looking for libertarians, and would probably see most social conservatives as ideologues or shallow provocateurs whom they are not interested in.
The majority of conservatives are white males. With women attending colleges at a much higher rate than men, white males are already getting preferential consideration as colleges work to balance their class.
And, frankly, where does the line stop? Do we welcome openly racist, xenophobic, sexist, and/or homophobic people and even give them a boost*? After all, that would make for a variety of “ideas.”
How do you judge who is and isn’t a conservative? Trump is by most modern traditional definitions not a conservative (at least prior to beginning his campaign) but still pulled heavily from right-leaning voters. OTOH, there is a non-negligible number of people who voted for both Obama and Trump. What do you do with those people?
The idea of hiring or not based on someone’s political beliefs gives me the chills. We’ve already been through McCarthyism, the anarchist hysteria, etc. It’s too damn slippery of a slope.
*Because someone will jump on me, let me state the obvious: not everyone who is conservative shares these traits and there are non-conservatives who fall into these groups.
@romanigypsyeyes - I can tell you that at least one Wesleyan grad I have talked to had a similar reaction, “Trump and his supporters have ruined every American institution they’ve gotten their hands on. Let them leave our liberal NE colleges alone!”
Perhaps what he is really saying is they need fair minded professors who will allow and actually welcome open debate of both sides in their classroom without taking sides themselves.
All Roth did was advocate for “an affirmative-action program for the full range of conservative ideas and traditions,” ELECTIVE classes on “the relationship between military institutions and civil society.” Elective courses and programs on “the philosophical and economic foundations of private property, free enterprise and market economies” and “the relationship of tolerance to individual rights, freedom and voluntary association.” Non-mandatory speaker events where conservative speakers appear, while specifically disavowing any intent to invite " ideologues or shallow provocateurs intent on outraging students and winning the spotlight." Seems not just reasonable but desirable to me.
Take a look at this essay from National Review entitled: “The Next Right-Wing Populist Will Win By Attacking American Higher Education.” http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449418/right-wing-populism-next-target-american-higher-education. We are all familiar with the efforts of Fox News and websites like The College Fix to sensationalize stories of college “snowflakes” and the liberal academy. It is not difficult to imagine the author’s prediction coming true, with a right-wing populist branding colleges the “enemy of the American people.” I feel like many of my Republican acquaintances are already fully onboard with this view.
What especially caught my eye was when the writer said: “These blows will land for three reasons: 1) They’re partially true; 2) universities and the Left are in denial about their truth; and 3) Republican voters have been primed to believe them.” I think Roth is wise to make an affirmative effort to open Wesleyan to the input of conservative ideas and thought. And I don’t mean provocateurs like Milo but rather serious speakers and scholars.
And in terms of students, I don’t think the outreach should be to suburban young Republicans. But Posse reaches out to underprivileged urban youth. Is there any organized effort similar to Posse that affirmatively reaches out to underprivileged rural youth from “flyover country”?
I grew up in rural, small town America, and I would like to see more outreach to those schools. However, the education needs to begin earlier. In towns where the average ACT is 18 or 19, you are not likely to find many candidates for top 100 schools if there isn’t outreach to parents and students earlier than when it is time for college. Then maybe they will understand why grades, rigor, and test scores matter while there is time left to improve.
I don’t think that it is appropriate to give the flat earthers, nazis, young earth creationists, or climate change deniers, more of a voice on campus. However, there are hundreds of thousands of rural students who never have a chance to reach their full potential, just like there are in urban areas. Our educational system is failing far too many students all across the country. Unfortunately, both parties are failing our students.
However, “the philosophical and economic foundations of private property, free enterprise and market economies” and “the relationship of tolerance to individual rights, freedom and voluntary association” does not really cover many of the current and commonplace types of social conservatism that are prominent today. These stated topics are more in line with libertarianism than the usual conservatism that includes at least some social conservatism – but there are not that many actual libertarians in general (though there may be more percentagewise on college campuses than overall society).
The type of social conservatism that is unfriendly to LGBT, worries about the idea of the US becoming majority non-white, prefers living in racially segregated neighborhoods, and/or believes in young-earth creationism is commonplace in general society, but is unlikely to be sought out by Wesleyan or others who want to bring in conservative ideas that are not seen as inflammatory shallow provocations that many will see as attacks on their unchangeable identity.
Note also that universities are often much more diverse (race, ethnicity, religion, SES, national origin) than many neighborhoods and high schools, even if the universities do not actively try to promote or increase diversity, since universities draw students from much larger geographic areas than high schools do. For the social conservatives who frown on any such diversity, that may mean that universities start out unfavorably because of that.
Oh, dear. We shouldn’t get paranoid about conservative opinion and rush to paint it as always extreme. Look around and you may find your own friends hold some conservative views. Maybe we miss that, in some psychological twist. Maybe they agree with us just enough that we’re assured in some way. Or maybe they rarely mention the differences. It may, indeed, be worth exploring.
“There is no denying the left-leaning political bias on American college campuses.” But nor that even quite liberal campuses can have a strong conservative constituency. Partly political, sometimes socio-religious. Or related to ethics.
I’m a little amused that, in fact, maybe we liberals do need to be exposed to more conservatives in daily goings on, to bust a few stereotypes, open wider conversation. Same as current diversity goals bring many in contact with “others.”
In case you all were wondering, this thread is exactly the kind of thing Roth was talking about. You can only develop some of the ideas spouted as fact on this thread if you exist in an ideological bubble. It is the Pauline Kael syndrome.
Just think how cool it would be if the opportunity afforded to @romanigypsyeye’s spouse was available to liberals. What a radical idea.
I don’t live in an ideological bubble. That’s a fallacy some people have been telling to console themselves, IMO. I live in a neighborhood that leans right, on some issues more than others, but nevertheless. While my state voted democrat, the county I live in and the one I was raised in tend to go republican. The one I live in actually more so than the one I grew up in, which can be surprising since I grew up in a more rural area and I currently live in what I like to describe as a suburb of a suburb.
This article is making use of that fallacy that conservative beliefs are under attack in some sort of culture war.
I agree with posts 15 and 16. I’m disheartened by the posts in this thread and it’s a perfect example of what the author is talking about. You are painting all conservatives as the alt right group that Donald Trump has embraced. Which is not true. Fox News is painting college campuses as Echo Chambers for the crazy liberals, and by not having other voices on campus these portrayals are becoming true.
My conservative friends are not homophobic, are not for “white power” and are big believers in smaller government, less regulation, etc.
Colleges should be choosing moderate and conservative professors in addition to the lefty types that are common on campus now. Inviting extreme provocateurs onto campus that you see now only serves to rile up the liberal base and make conservatives a characterture bringing no actual alternative ideas that appeal to, or change the minds of others.
*Spoken by a true moderate who votes for the PERSON not the party and has votes both platforms throughout my lifetime.
I think college professors are being stereotyped as “extreme left types”.