Political Intollerance in College, real or imagined?

Wow, Vagabond, having a final-exam score where the students have some input on other students' scores is frightening! Glad it worked out for ya, though - can't go home crying with a 98!! 33 credits, guess you're a sophomore now - good luck on your remaining 90 credits or so, bud!

My University was full of Liberal Professors. I remember three in particular who made sure we knew how they felt at least once a week. Before anyone asks,.... no,...these particular classes had little (if anything) to do with Politics. To give you an example, an art class Professor decided to bring in Voter registration cards, and strongly recommended to us that we fill them out and vote that "Moron" out of office. The class cheered of course. She used to go on about Politics in class at least a couple of minutes whenever she could find the time. I liked her as a person and teacher, but I didn't appreciate the opinionated political lectures which had nothing to do with the class. She wasn't the only one of course, but what's the point of mentioning any of it if I don't have these Political diatribes recorded on tape? Maybe one of you who are still in College might like to take a little tape recorder to class if you have one of these Professors teaching you. Just a thought.

At one point one of the students decided to create a dry-eraser-board soldier for a project, and plant him along the walk way. Students would walk by and write down their thoughts about the Iraq conflict. Messages read something along the lines of "Bush is a plant", "Bush is a moron", etc. etc. I obviously can't remember every message word for word, but many colorful (inappropriate) words were used. I have nothing against someone expressing their opinions, I just feel that those opinions could be expressed with the use of a more civil language. I certainly would have had more respect for them.

In all my years attending this University, I heard maybe five-six Conservatives speak their mind. Why so few? Do most Conservatives not enjoy speaking their minds? Was the school lacking in Conservatives? Or were they too intimidated to speak up, especially after the Professor voiced his own opinion of what an idiot George W. Bush and all those war-mongering Conservatives were?

I can't say I'm Conservative through and through, and I certainly can't say I'm a Democrat either. There are some things I like and dislike about both political parties.
Did I feel discriminated against/slighted by any of this? I was bothered by it, but I wouldn't say I was victimized. I was vastly outnumbered, so I couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. That's only natural. I said what I wanted to say, but to be honest I tried not to talk about Politics too much. I knew I wasn't going to change their outlook on things, and I never (during the years I spent among them) heard them say anything that would make me change my mind. The way some of them talked about it didn't help their case. Arguing with them just didn't seem worth the energy. I'd say it was like trying to convince a devout Christian that there is no God. People believe what they want to believe, and I'm sure that in some cases that's true for me as well.

I'd like to make one thing clear; I would have been just as upset about this had the Conservative professors used their class time to voice their opinions about how Democrats 'suck'. If/when appropriate, Professors should encourage students to voice their opinions no matter what Political Party they stand behind. Professors should either present both views equally, or keep their mouth shut about this particular issue,....ESPECIALLY if politics have no place in their particular classrooms (i.e. Art, Biology, etc.) The point of being a teacher is to provide your students with information,....and allow them to form their own opinions based on that information. If you go on about how you hate/love George W. Bush, some weak-minded students (or those who believe you are the authority on the subject) just might want to impress you by agreeing with everything you say. You have to teach them to think for themselves! If you fail to do this, you're creating mindless sheep. If you're consciously creating mindless sheep, you are purposely doing society a disservice. Just my opinion of course.

Originally posted by 2manyquestionsIn all my years attending this University, I heard maybe five-six Conservatives speak their mind. Why so few? Do most Conservatives not enjoy speaking their minds? Was the school lacking in Conservatives? Or were they too intimidated to speak up, especially after the Professor voiced his own opinion of what an idiot George W. Bush and all those war-mongering Conservatives were?

Conservatives like to work.

I had a sociology professor who liked to talk about herbal supplements and I had a calculus professor who liked discussing the history of calculus. In both cases, the personal rants were not much, sometimes had their place in the ciriculum and most of all, were kept minimally interuptive to the course material.

I have a feeling that some students enjoy being lazy, and because of this they cannot cope with the idea that their professors do not agree with their specific views.

Conservatives like to see other people work for them and George Bush doesn't like to work at all Its August, the world is going to hell in a handbasket... Time to take a month's vacation in Crawford.

Originally posted by grover
Conservatives like to see other people work for them

I'm always happy to see a well thought out and completely on-topic response from a member who knows how to put just enough in a post without going over the top. Can you hook me up? I'll give you a cookie.

I think those who think a liberal bias in higher education is a myth ought to sit in to a few (or heck, in many cases just a minutes!) university classes. it will be entirely free (well, parking may cost a few quarters for visitor spots - but in my experience either nobody will notice your car, or the university police-issued parking tickets will not mean anything unless you intend to graduate from that school.)

Look for lecture-hall or auditorium classes - at most there will be a paper roll call (which you just pass along), but most of the classes (unless you are unlucky enough to select an exam day) will be pretty empty, and nobody will care. I've seen classes at more schools than I can remember this way! Plus, you may learn something new!

Originally posted by nogirt
Conservatives like to work.

I had a sociology professor who liked to talk about herbal supplements and I had a calculus professor who liked discussing the history of calculus. In both cases, the personal rants were not much, sometimes had their place in the ciriculum and most of all, were kept minimally interuptive to the course material.

I have a feeling that some students enjoy being lazy, and because of this they cannot cope with the idea that their professors do not agree with their specific views.

Did I misunderstand, or did you just imply that the Conservative students are too lazy to voice their opinions? Please explain if I didn't read that correctly.

Whatever the case, a Professor's job is to lecture the students on the subject, not on their personal beliefs about Holistic Medicine, or personal Political beliefs. They are a figure of authority, and should therefore realize that anything they seem to condone might be taken seriously by their students. Being friendly and chatty is O.K. Voicing opinions such as "Our President is a Moron" is not O.K. It may not be synonymous with promoting one religion over another, but it comes close. A calculus Professor who enjoys talking about Calculus history somehow doesn't seem to match up to the level of a Biology or Art Professor talking about war-mongering Conservatives.

I don't believe he was speaking of people being too lazy to speak up, I think he was talking about people just "nodding their heads and smiling" like in the examples I gave in previous posts.

Most of the "experienced students" just don't care about the jibber-jabber and just wanted to hear what is going to be on the test, especially when they have seen that a professor is not going to take the time to entertain contrarian ideas.

Most of us back in University (or even high-school) have asked the question "is this going to be on the test?" because, quite bluntly - we don't need the extra propaganda/junk/whatever.

Originally posted by AlphaHumana
Most of us back in University (or even high-school) have asked the question "is this going to be on the test?" because, quite bluntly - we don't need the extra propaganda/junk/whatever.

This is an excellent point, because when I was in grad school, there were quite a few students who agreed with the point of view of the offending professors who commented that they weren't paying twenty grand a year to hear "The World According to _________."

[edit on 2006/8/9 by GradyPhilpott]