What does it mean for a college to be considered "liberal?"

<p>I've seen the term getting tossed around, specifically for Brown. What does it mean?</p>

<p>It means the student body tends to lean towards the liberal side of America’s political spectrum (versus the conservative side).</p>

<p>Simple, the student body politically is more to the left. Very common at Ivy League schools.</p>

<p>As you probably know…</p>

<p>Socially liberal: pro choice, pro marriage equality, pro right to use contraception, anti death penalty, anti war, pro legalization.</p>

<p>Economically liberal: Allows the government to assume more responsibility in areas like health care, regulating markets.</p>

<p>(As the term is defined today, not classically)</p>

<p>As it applies to Brown/colleges: if you hold fiscally conservative ideas you might be okay, but if you are anti marriage equality or some other social issues, you might have a tough time. Students will probably be accepting of drug use even if they don’t partake.</p>

<p>^Agreed. A Libertarian is someone who is socially liberal but economically conservative. (example, Ron Paul). A very large portion of libertarians (I’d be willing to bet the majority, but I don’t have any statistics for that) are college students.</p>

<p>I’m actually a libertarian. Well, I suppose libertarianism is probably one of the more logical political standpoints.</p>

<p>It’s logical, but in the real world, people depend on federal/state programs, and it would be a pity to deny them food/shelter/health care simply because of an idealogical stance.</p>

<p>Most colleges are already pretty liberal relative to the average population (in the US, at least), so a “liberal” college, at least in the way I think of it, is especially noted for its liberal characteristics.</p>

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<p>Libertarianism is most logical to people like you and me, but to many others a different standpoint is most logical. People with stronger religious backgrounds tend to be more conservative, which is completely logical for them, yet illogical for us.</p>

<p>Brown in particular is described as “liberal” not only because of the students, but also it’s unique system in which there are no course requirements and each student is the “architect” of their own education which adds to the liberal nature of Brown.</p>