My parents were not impressed with my attitude following the first term of freshman year. I attacked them for condoning all the problems of the world on which I was now an expert. There were wars I had never heard of, countries I never knew existed and animals receiving rights I did not know even I had. I was in shock. The world college presented to me was nothing, I thought, like the world in which my parents had raised me, and I told them so.
It took me until last week to realize that the critical liberalism that saturates this university is not exclusive to the University of Oregon. An article in The Register-Guard published March 30, “Study backs liberal faculty image,” finally supported the general observation I made that the majority of professors I have had are liberal-minded. The study surveyed 1,643 college professors at 183 schools and found that 72 percent considered themselves liberal.
I attribute the shock of freshman year to my assimilation from a
generally moderate environment into a liberal-minded one.
The Independent Women’s Forum and the Randolph Foundation, a right leaning support group of Americans for Tax Reform, funded this study to show how one-sided a college education is in America. But why is it that students like me are so shocked at learning these alternative views? Lack of exposure.
I would not argue that the “government bashing” in my political science courses is unwarranted, but it is an injustice to disseminate predominantly liberal views in a governmental institution. As such, I can only assume that the liberalist education serves not to oppose what is known by the general public, but to balance the reality of the future leaders of this country by revealing that which is not commonly known by or taught to the general public. Liberal professors are laying the other half of a foundation so that students can eventually stand up straight.
The Randolph Foundation’s findings should not be misinterpreted. Irrational extremism is not synonymous with liberalism, for if it were, the American government would not continue to support higher education. The freshman student’s impassioned extremism is an understandable effect of the transition into college, and it shows the one-sidedness of what is disseminated to the general public. Thankfully, most students learn to articulate their passions in a way that is more rational and systematically thought out than the attacks made to parents during freshman year.
The process begins simply by realizing the futility of reaping all joy of a conversation just to evangelize idealistic solutions to the world’s problems. To be in any way progressive and influential, students will integrate liberal views into a still conservative American government. I just hope my grandfather was wrong when he said that liberals are just college graduates who have not yet made any money.
Nicholas Wilbur Lives in Eugene