Hi, I was admitted EA to Yale’s class of 2021, and am almost certain I’ll attend. But, in the past few weeks I’ve been reading more and more into attitudes at many US colleges regarding free speech. Exemplar would be the thread here on CC or a new video about Yale specifically that discusses the incident from Halloween 2015. Although I personally lean more “liberal”, I am a little worried about these movements that seem to go against the values of freedom that forms the bedrock of our society.
So, I am wondering if any people who know Yale more closely than I do could tell me how alarming these recent developments really are. Is it just a vocal fringe that is responsible for these kind of events, or are in fact many students supportive of curbing freedom of speech and opinion? As somebody who might not always agree with all “liberal” viewpoints, will I be able to engage in constructive debate on campus or is it socially unacceptable to express views that deviate from the “mainstream” (I don’t like to throw these loaded terms around, but that’s the language thats used, so I’ll use it too)?
Yale is majority liberal like most college campuses in this region – but there are plenty of conservative students too. My D was active in the Yale Political Union which has parties representing a broad spectrum of political beliefs. She is practically a communist, but a lot of her closest friends were from conservative groups. I was very happy that she had a chance to exchange views with people who disagreed with her. On the other hand, I do think political correctness is at a high-water mark on many college campuses, and Yale is no exception.
If you attend any college in the Northeast, you’re going to be in the minority if you have “conservative” viewpoints. That’s just a fact – and it doesn’t matter if it’s Yale, Princeton, Harvard, or Amherst, Boston University or Bowdoin. The percentages and attitudes mentioned in this article are probably consistent for any Northeast college: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/441504/yale-conservatives-students-report-liberal-bias
Thanks for your responses. I think I overrepresented how conservative my viewpoints are. I definitely lean left - as a European perhaps even more so than very many Americans - I just strongly disagree with the belief that controversial topics should be ignored out of fear of offense. I’m just not sure to what extent this mentality permeates the campus.
totally agree with @ProfDad. My oldest went to Yale and my younger one is at Swarthmore and they are both pretty “mainstream” liberals (meaning that they probably agree with Rachel Maddow a lot of the time). But both of them have been in pretty serious disagreement with the most rabid craziness on their respective campuses. They are both STEM oriented and didn’t really get involved in any of the protests. They had their work to do.
At Yale, and in life, some people will discuss ideological differences thoughtfully, some emotionally, some hostilely, and some not at all. Also…at Yale, and in life, the noisiest people get the most attention and seem to speak for the group, whether or not they do. You’re wise to intuit that it’s an issue at Yale, but not an insurmountable one, nor is it unique to Yale.
“I just strongly disagree with the belief that controversial topics should be ignored out of fear of offense. I’m just not sure to what extent this mentality permeates the campus.”
Current Yale student here. I find this statement pretty funny, because in my experience the opposite is largely true - students are usually overzealous and eager to address and debate controversial issues. It’s true that liberals largely outnumber conservatives (just like at nearly any other college in the US), but far right-wing websites like to conflate this lack of support for conservative viewpoints with a ‘shutting-down’ of alternate views. A whole host of conservative speakers have spoken over the past year, including Ben Carson and Ben Shapiro, and numerous issues have been discussed (see: http://www.buckleyprogram.com/past-events), and all of these have gone on without a hitch.
Unfortunately, Yale due its national prominence is often a punching bag for articles which harp on one controversial event or misrepresent it, and then portray it as the norm for student interactions at the university.
My view is that a person with conservative views will not have too much trouble at Yale, or other similar liberal-leaning colleges, as long as he does not hold and promote some specific conservative views:
If he is against equal rights for gay people, he will be WAY out of the mainstream at Yale and many other colleges.
If he believes in young-Earth creationism, people at Yale will think he isn’t very intelligent.
Most other issues will be up for grabs. Even abortion, because many Catholic students will be pro-life while being pretty liberal on other issues.