<p>Politically, would you say the University of Rochester tends to lean more to the left or to the right? I realize there will be students and professors of all persuasions, but I'm trying to find out about the general political culture. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Can’t really answer but there seems to be a general avoidance of allowing hot button issues take over. I think that’s good. I know the school paper decided to keep a lid on some polarizing matters over the years.</p>
<p>I concur.</p>
<p>UR strikes me as neither particularly conservative nor outrageously liberal. Many students seem to be–for lack of better word–apolitical. (IOW, you aren’t going to find any Occupy Rochester encampments on the quad. Neither are going to see fistfights about abortion/women’s rights/gun control/tax reform/prayer in school or whatever the issue du jour is.)</p>
<p>The school administration seems to be consciously neutral. Bill Clinton was a speaker at Meliora this year, but so was Clarence Thomas.</p>
<p>For a contrasting perspective (in comparison to Lergnom & wowm), I can offer my experience so far. For the first semester, not much seemed to be happening politically. This is likely due to the fact that I was busy adjusting to college life. The political atmosphere has been, however, for the second semester, extremely charged. A few things have happened to cause this. The most important event so far was the result of a couple of the more prolific economics professors here openly backing Rush Limbaugh’s analysis of Sandra Fluke’s testimony. One of the professors was published in the Wall Street Journal, which caused a lot of backlash on campus. One student group, the Students for Democratic society, actually held a protest in the middle of one of the professor’s lectures. The campus was on fire for about a week during that time. Also, more information on the SDS club: They would be considered politically radical by most people (toward the left). I went to an event that they organized at the beginning of school that had a couple of anarchic professor give their take on anarchism. It was fascinating. One of them, the anthropologist, gave his personal account of a nomadic, anarchic tribe that he stayed with for a couple years on some island. On the other hand, I know a student that just started a hard core libertarian group on campus, I know quite a few ardent liberals, and a few Marxists. You get all extremes of the political spectrum (with the exception of fascism; I have only met one fascist so far). Also, when the Kony 2012 video came out, the campus got pretty charged again. A lot of the student population was ready to get heavily involved until more critical evidence started coming out.</p>
<p>An important piece of information about myself, though, would be that I am on the debate team. Because of this, and because I probably look for political upheaval more so than other students, I am probably near the center of political discourse on campus more often than other people. I am constantly involved in argumentation, though, regarding the latest political developments, so the campus seems, from my perspective, to contain a substantial population of very non-apolitical students.</p>
<p>My kid was in economics class when a group came in to protest the professor’s comments about Limbaugh’s words. It was entirely peaceful and largely non-disruptive. (She supported the protestors, btw, and thought they did it right.) Remember, UR President Seligman posted his own comment about his own professors’ remarks in which he a) defended their right to speak and b) said they were wrong and gave reasons why. I thought the school handled that well. </p>
<p>As I mentioned above, when the school paper was presented with the makings of a couple of inflammatory debates, they decided to back off because they decided airing this kind of thing would create bad feelings without convincing anyone to change position. </p>
<p>As you note, gamahead, the campus can get charged up. Genocide in the Sudan, etc. But these aren’t the norm.</p>
<p>I agree with everything there, Lergnom. I especially can’t believe I forgot to address Seligman’s handling of the situation. Thanks for bringing that up. It was extremely well handled, and I actually grew even more favorable of the university as a whole as a result of the situation.</p>