MODERATOR’S NOTE: Remember to restrict your comments to those regarding school. I’ve had to delete a few purely political posts.
Some Northwestern EE students seem to be bothered by Arthur Butz, even though keeping politics out of EE classes is easier than in some other subjects.
I was unfamiliar with Butz until I just googled him. I wonder how one works the holocaust into circuit design? Maybe Prof Butz should move over to the history department and present his ‘alternative’ viewpoint. It would seem like an inexcusible waste of an EE students classroom time to be lectured on holocaust history.
Re #45
From articles on the web, Butz keeps politics out of EE lectures (perhaps under orders from the department or school administration). But going to his office hours may not be a comforting thought for some students.
" Maybe Prof Butz should move over to the history department and present his ‘alternative’ viewpoint."
Creative fiction might be more appropriate.
To get a feel read the blogs that students write. Read the school paper. Countless schools were rejected based on this. Look at the clubs. Its pretty easy to figure out. Most universities tilt liberal. Schools can be very liberal politically but very conservative on alcohol and the like.
A lot of this discussion is unclear, and depends on what the OP is contemplating by “conservative” and “liberal.” Everyone seems to have their own definitions. There are a few schools like Oberlin and maybe Vassar that are pretty clearly liberal. There are some like Oral Roberts and Liberty that are pretty clearly conservative.
After that, it depends, what issue you are talking about. Hopefully, colleges are focused on facts and evidence rather than opinions. A conservative idea that free markets increase wealth creation should be found on any college campus, but the conservative idea that the earth is only 5,000 years old will be found only on religious campuses. The liberal idea that vaccines are dangerous should not be found on campuses either. Schools should be teaching students what the evidence shows, and I think that for the most part they do.
“The liberal idea that vaccines are dangerous should not be found on campuses either.”
For the record, anti-vaxxers are on both sides of the political aisle.
http://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vaccination-beliefs-dont-follow-typical-liberal-conservative-divide-2017-8
There are many more schools liberal than conservative these days its just a matter of degree. Professors are by nature far more liberal politically speaking so it is the degree of the student body that tilts.
@USdncrUSSRsoul I think your question is very valid. It’s not about wanting to avoid differing “opinions”, but about a good fit where your student will be successful and happy. While both of my children are comfortable defending their political views, neither wanted to be at an extremely conservative leaning school. DS’s top school is listed as a top 50 liberal leaning college, while DD has a mix of Liberal & Conservative labeled school (according to Niche) that all lean towards the center. We monitor the social media of the colleges to see what if anything they post about political issues that are important to them. As an indicator of conservative school is no co-ed floors or bathrooms, an indicator of a liberal leaning school is gender neutral housing options. It’s important that your student be able to find their “tribe” and feel free to have open discussions. Good Luck in your search.
As a simple rule of thumb, I think a university professor should have at least the same First Amendment rights as an NFL player.
^Come on. Nobody is suggesting that professors (or NFL players) don’t have the right to speak. It is weird, I know, but some of us will even extend that right to speak to people who are not in agreement with the progressive outrage of the moment. But that is not the issue. The OP asked a legitimate question about how to gauge the level of politics on a particular campus. That is a legitimate question for anyone who is not so myopic that they can’t even admit that virtually all college communities are almost universally more liberal in their outlook than the country as a whole.
i think this illustrates an important point. My daughter is at Vassar, and by any normal definition is pretty liberal. She is on the conservative end of the spectrum at Vassar (or at least so it appears to her so far). But the particular flavor of liberalism at Vassar was palatable to her, while there were other schools (Brown in particular) where the style of liberal/progressive politics on that campus was a big turn off.
“My daughter is at Vassar, and by any normal definition is pretty liberal. She is on the conservative end of the spectrum at Vassar (or at least so it appears to her so far). But the particular flavor of liberalism at Vassar was palatable to her, while there were other schools (Brown in particular) where the style of liberal/progressive politics on that campus was a big turn off.”
As an example, my daughter at Penn is definitely liberal, but she is annoyed by students who want to protest every silly thing. She thinks it devalues protests over bigger issues. Thankfully, Penn students tend to be a lot like her. This pragmatic approach also has allowed her to have a couple of good friends who are conservative and I think that is a good thing. They just don’t discuss politics.
Those who protest every silly thing tend to get an outsize share of the attention, though. That is what they want.
The same goes for conservatives, where those who promote ridiculous conspiracy theories or bigotry get the most attention. That is what they want.
But the end result is the general lowering of the level of political discourse to hateful sloganeering, where it is much less possible to discuss anything political without devolving into a shouting match.
@Ohiodad51 wrote:
I offered my myopic view back at post#12 and, so far I haven’t read any better answers. TBH, if Duke and Notre Dame are outside the OP’s comfort zone, they probably shouldn’t venture too far from their state flagship university which would at least ensure a decent number of students who share the same demographic and be a pretty good bet educationally, too.