<p>For current students (or those that have visited, etc.)....</p>
<p>I know Wes has a huge reputation for being politically active and very liberal.<br>
does the campus ever get too PC?</p>
<p>It depends on whose ox is being gored. The continuing controversey surrounding the right to chalk anonymous messages on university property has quite a few segments of the Left pitted against the administration. In that situation, it's difficult to define who's being PC, the administration for wanting to protect the delicate sensibilities of visiting prospies and parents or students who insist on an unfettered right to communicate? In many ways, Wesleyan has spearheaded a post-PC phase in political discourse.</p>
<p>I think that johnwesley's concept of a "post-PC phase in political discourse" is interesting, and fairly accurate based on my own experience.</p>
<p>I don't think the campus is too PC, but I have heard people argue otherwise :)</p>
<p>Many people (such as Madjoy) don't view the campus as too PC, so I'll come out and say that it really depends how PC you're willing to be. Most students here are not ultra-PC, far-left socialist nutcases (notice I mention nothing about party affiliation, because I think the Democratic party would be ashamed of such people). However, there is a very vocal contingent of that type on campus who are willing to call anyone a sexist/racist/heterosexist/any other BS name they can come up with to ignore your argument (madjoy, I think even you will admit this happens). That said, most of them are in the upper classes and are remnants of a different incarnation of Wesleyan. President Bennet is retiring this year, though, so depending on who replaces him, that incarnation could become dominant again. However, I doubt it will, because from my observations, every class at Wesleyan gets progressively more moderate. Also, I recently had a talk with Dean Teraguchi of the Diversity office and he told me that he considers conservatives an underrepresented minority on campus, so the administration is definitely not as repressive as it could be.</p>
<p>Now to the part which madjoy is probably expecting - yes, the campus gets too PC at times. I recently got an email in which a certain unnamed student expressed distress that "freshmen were not reporting 'intolerant' speech to the Student Judicial Board" ("intolerant" in this case meaning slightly insensitive speech) and that "people were viewing 'calling out whiteness' as racism" ("calling out whiteness" in this case meaning telling rich students to shove their money up their rectums and die). If the former quote doesn't strike you as shamelessly fascistic and the second quote doesn't strike you as a ridiculous double standard, then you shouldn't have a problem here at all. If even one of them strikes you as wrong, then you are probably in the vast majority of students here. If you're morally offended by both of them and couldn't possibly keep your mouth shut about your offense, then you might want to look for a different school. Really, as far as the political correctness on campus goes, it all comes down to two things:</p>
<ol>
<li>How thick skinned you are - can you take being called a racist or a sexist, or stomach personal attacks that people throw at you because of your politics? If you can, then you shouldn't have a problem.</li>
<li>How well you can pick your battles - a lot of nonsense gets thrown around at Wes. A lot of really intelligent discourse gets thrown around at Wes as well. You need to realize that just because someone on the campus says something stupid doesn't mean that everyone believes it and it doesn't mean that you need to argue against it. </li>
</ol>
<p>Bottom line: Most people here are not stalking the campus, looking for conservatives to kill (and those that are tend to be frowned on for giving Wes a bad name). Most people here, in fact, are perfectly comfortable with making race/sex/sexuality/dead baby jokes, because they recognize them as humor. A very small, very vocal, very humorless section of the campus is going to try and shut you up if you're even slightly "insensitive". Pay no attention to them. You'll get crazies like them wherever you go and they're just emboldened by the fact that most of Wes is liberal and they think that gives them carte blanche to be douchebags. It doesn't, and I think with every succeeding year, the tolerance on this campus for their douchebaggery goes down a notch. Any campus can get too PC, but it just happens more often at Wes. If you come here, you'll learn to laugh at it, because a lot of the time it's very childish. </p>
<p>Apply if you like Wes. If you don't, apply anyway. Rejections raise our ranking in US News and World Report. ;) Just kidding.</p>
<p>haha. great response</p>