Liberal bias on our nation's college campuses

In light of the controversial comments by an instructor at Duke University about the intelligence and morality of conservatives, Andy Sullivan (www.andrewsullivan.com) has asked his readers to submit their own horror stories about experiencing unprofessional behavior by leftist professors in college.

So far, quite a few interesting stories...

"It isn't just Duke. I just wanted to pass along this anecdote from my days attending Indiana University. It was the fall semester of 1994 and it was also the evening of the midterm elections which brought the Republicans to majority status in the House. My prof strolled into class (a class on the Beatles) and began to spew left wing hate in all directions. He said he could not belive a country was so naive as to elect the Nazis (how I tire of this comparison) to head the House of Representatives. Then, as an aside, he smiled and winked at the class, and said, "well, at least I know no one in here contributed to the end of America as we know it". I wanted to stand up and scream, "I did!! I am bringing about a revolution in American governance and I am damn proud of it". But, feeling a little ostracized, I did not. I am not one who normally gets "offended" by other people and the things they say but, I have to say I was on this occasion." Readers are hereby invited to send in any reminiscences - past or present - of blatant professorial political bias in today's academia. Not just expressions of opinion, but attempts to intimidate or exclude opposing opinions."

"I'm a doctoral student in English Literature at a large southeastern University, and I also work as a research assistant for a professor who works in a rather trendy area in Theory. In a welcome change, my professor asked me last week to read a biography about apartheid South Africa and help her discuss the book with one of her undergraduate students. The notion arose in our discussion that once peoples previously separated by fear and stereotypes actually met individually, they were often able to put aside these fears. As an example, my professor put forward the abstract idea of meeting Republicans and trying to understand them as people. Misreading the consternation on my face, she quickly noted that she didn't personally know any Republicans and, anyway, there could be NO justifiable excuse for being a Republican. Now, this professor is a lovely and amiable person, but she felt more than comfortable making this comparison in front of two students whose political leanings she assumed were her own. Considering our discussion of apartheid, I said nothing but savored the delicious irony all day."

"From 1983-1987 I was a graduate student in European History at the Univ. of Mass. I was, very nearly, the lone 'conservative' and witnessed then and afterwards dozens of instances of left wing bias both in teaching and in the hiring of teachers for the Academy. The one that stands out, I suppose for humorous reasons, is the following: I had a good friend who was taking a class in the Women's History department on advertising and women. I sat in quietly during one of the classes and noticed that it was a fairly well-attended class of around 25 women and one man (not including me.) It was about 2/3rds of the way through the semester and they were thick in the process of presenting to the class their research projects for the semester. The teacher was scheduling these for the next few sessions and she would call on each student by name and schedule their day to present. Eventually, she got to the lone male in the class at which point she asked ... 'What is your name again?'"

"The only time I was ever really intimidated in class for my political beliefs, though, was in a Spanish class. The professor told us that there are no more dictators in Latin America. When I asked about Castro, I was informed that you cannot take the word of the defectors; they are the worms who want to live off the labor of others rather than having solidarity with the workers. What about the persecution of homosexuals? Well, we persecute homosexuals in the US too. When he asked what I wanted to do with my degree, I told him I was considering joining the Air Force. The next class began with him telling how disappointed he was in one of his students who had gone into the Army a few years earlier, supporting rather than criticizing the foreign policy of our horrible government. I have never been so eager for a term to end. I know he was the exception, but that doesn't excuse it."

"This past fall term at the University of Oregon, I was taking a Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu class. The teacher decided that on Columbus Day, he would give the class a huge lecture on how evil it was for our government to celebrate a man who not only is to blame for the extinction of countless Native American cultures, but is indirectly a cause of Hitler's Holocaust. This went on for an entire class, and at one point he even made a comparision of Bush to Hitler using what Bush was doing in the Middle East as his justification for that. This led to a diatribe on the evils of capitalism and the Oil Industry. Before that class session, I always thought that Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu was just about grapple-style fighting, little did I realize that if I were to be a true Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu artist I would have to battle the evils of genocide and capitalism as well."

"I had to take a class at the College of NJ called ... hmmm... ah ... SET (Science, Ethics, and Technology). A truly liberal-ating experience it was. During the Semester, a speaker was to give a lecture on the modern state. After the usual accolades, he began his lecture with his first point, "The final and greatest evolution of government is communism." He later moved on to say that Gulf War I was pushed by the military to test newly developed weapons. Well I paid too much money and spent too much time in the military at Ft. Bragg to take his rhetoric any longer. I asked him openly "If communism is sooo great why did its bastion implode?" On the Gulf War point, I told him it was baseless and I didn't think he knew what he was talking about. Anyway the rest of the semester I was attacked almost at every turn by brainwashed classmates. It didn't matter. I got an A-. To the conservative students: do your homework; read ahead so they can't trap you in an argument that they prepared throughout the 60's and 70's for."

Too often, this is the prevailing attitude about conservatives on America's campuses. From a letter written by a Duke professor in 2002:

"In seeking faculty, universities look for people who can analyze and discuss matters of some complexity, who are unafraid to challenge the wisdom of simple solutions, and who have a sense of social responsibility toward those who cannot buy influence. Such people tend to be put off by a political party dominated by those who believe dogmatically in the infallibility of the marketplace as a solution to all economic problems, or else in the infallibility of scripture as a guide to morality. In short, universities want people of some depth, subtlety and intelligence. People like that usually vote for the Democrats. So what?"


The arrogance is sickening.

Have any LSU students in here got a story to share with the group about outrageous lefty professors in your college experience? Care to share with the group?

 

I see our resident Fascist, Jetstorm, has been active. What the right wing wants is to stifle free speech, to make most people feel that those who disagree with them are not loyal Americans, and to demonize anyone who does not spout the right wing line.

Sieg Heil!! Jetstorm.

 

Seems to me that YOU are the one bitching about Jetstorm
expressing HIMSELF , hypocrite.

You really need to see a doctor about that rectal-cranial inversion you've got going there, CB.

 

I'd say LSU is pretty darn Conservative, between the 1,000+ members of the College Republicans email list to the kid that shouts about Redemtion and Hell in free speech alley.

We're lucky if we can fill the room at my College Democrats meetings. And don't forget the Blanco/Landrieu booing from the student section.

 

WONDERFUL! its about time the decent moral majority stood up agaisnt the bleeding heart liberal professors spilling their demented swill and propaganda ruining our youth.


Sounds like something cottonbowl would say only in reverse! LOL

 

I'm surprised about the Duke prof as it is apparent in the local paper here that the college staudents in NC are pretty GOP-oriented. My my my,another difficult thing to deal with here in quaint NC - I know that my vote cancels out my neighbors on every topic there is to vote on. Here, you must be very careful who you express your political opinions to

 

First let me say that I am a Republican who will vote Republican 99 times out of 100. BUT, I'm also pro-choice (although not RADICALLY).

I arrived in B.R. in the Fall of 1983 as a Freshman. The VERY FIRST class I attended was English 1002 (I missed placing it out of English 1002 by ONE point on the ACT). The teacher informed us that all students in freshman English classes were required to write an essay "for placement purposes" (to make sure you belonged at that level - a friend was actually promoted from Eng. 1001 based upon his essay).

For the essay, we were given 3 topics. I don't recall the other two topics, but the third topic was abortion.

I wrote the essay (in class) and turned it in. We had another class or two before our Prof gave back our essays.

When I got my essay back I was SHOCKED and dismayed. All I saw on my paper was a big red "D-". There were no other markings on any of the pages. I looked around and saw where my classmates had multiple red markings all over their papers but had received grades of A's, B's and C's. I had always been in Honors English at my private high school and never recalled getting a grade worse than C+.

We were required to make an appointment with the Professor to discuss our papers.

When I went to the Profs office, I probably sounded a bit incredulous. I showed him my paper and asked him, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PAPER - YOU DIDN'T GIVE MY ANY FEEDBACK OR MARK ANYTHING TECHNICALLY WRONG WITH MY PAPER. Further, I went back and reviewed my paper and couldn't find anything wrong with it."

He told me that my paper was "excellent" from an grammatical standpoint. However, I received a "D-" strictly due to my views on abortion. He went on to tell me that there is no way anyone could ever convince him that abortion should be legal. Further, to him, abortion was a mortal sin. Therefore, due to my views on abortion, the BEST grade I could receive was a "D-".

However, he did say that I was "lucky" - had the paper had any grammatical mistakes he would have given me an automatic "F".

I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe what I was hearing in my first two weeks of college.

I told him, "So, in order to get a good grade in your English class, I not only have to turn in technically perfect work, but I also have to read your mind to determine what your stance in on any individual issue." He laughed and said, "Well, not all the time. This is just an issue that I have strong feelings about."

I told him that I was going to drop his class. He told me that he wasn't going to allow that and wouldn't sign my drop/add form.

I HAD NO IDEA at the time that I didn't need his "permission" or signature to drop his class.

I told him that if he didn't agree to let me out of the class, that I would go to my Dean AND that I would write a letter to editor of the Reveille, Times Picayune and Morning Advocate. He relented and agreed to sign the drop/add form.

I went down to Junior Division and picked up the form. After I filled it out, the advisor went to take it. I told her that I had to get it signed first. She looked at me and said, "WHY?" I said that the Professor told me that I ahd to get his signature. She just laughed and said, "No you don't."

That was about my only experience with a radical professor from either side of the political spectrum while I was at LSU.

I later went to Michigan Law School. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone during my three years at Michigan. I have so many stories of my experiences from the far left there that I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

that is an incredible story about the abortion paper.

i was a poli sci major at lsu i was there from 1995-2000. basically everyone i met in the department was conservative, the students at least. most professors were mature enough about politics that they didnt see the need to convince us of their personal views, just to teach us.

there were exceptions though. i took a class on race and film, because it was taught by dr wayne parent, who is one of the more prominent poli sci guys on campus. it was ridicuous. 99% of the students in the class were there to feel good about themselves. one actually told a story about how people cant believe she has black friends, even though she drives a lexus, thats just how incredibly good of a person she was. the entire class was obsessed with telling stories that made them the most award-worthy race sensitive bleeding heart person in class. the co-professor was some lady from the women's studies department and she loved it. once i spoke up and commented that i thought were reading some themes into the movies we watched that werent necessarily there, but fit our political leanings and they hated me from then on. dr parent even made fun of me. it was pretty cool. i learned in that class what the motivation of a lot of liberals is. they want really badly to be percieved as on the side of what they see as the good guys, and make childish condemnations of evil things like big business, white people and southerners.

also i had dr kevin mulcahy for an arts in politics class. he was great. he was a huge advocate of public funds for art, in fact i think he has served on all sorts of national comissions regarding the subject, and traveled the world speaking about it. i disagreed really strongly with him about it, and wrote extensively about my opposition to it. he was supercool about it, and listened to everything i said. he was a great example of how to have an opinion and not be overbearing or too critical of opposition. i am sure he is psyched about bush's (mostly symbolic and slighly financial) support of the NEA.

overall i guess LSU was overwhelmingly conservative.