I am no fan of the anti-college conservatives. This is not simply because they are conservatives, but because they would have one believe that liberalism is some sort of epidemic that has struck our professors and is being passed to our students. I also dislike them because they would almost always choose blind faith instead of science and anti-intellectualism instead of an intelligent debate.
Their basic premise is laughable. Every person who enters a traditional four-year public college will be put through vigorous brain-washing attempts until they are transformed from conservative to liberal. As a result, all formerly conservative students, save for a few, will go home to God-fearing parents as a liberal, and the family structure will be destroyed. Not only is this not the case, it is far from being the case in every single class I have taken at Ohio State.
Yes, it is true that most professors and graduate teaching assistants are liberal rather than conservative or moderate. And yes, it is also true that some of their ideology will get thrown in with the facts. However, it is not true at OSU or anywhere else that professors are able to coerce or brainwash students into believing what they believe. In the interest of time, it simply would not be practical or useful for them to try.
I will not be one to doubt that most undergraduate students and those who recently graduated are indeed liberal. This will likely be the case, even if the class entered slightly more conservative than liberal. Conservative pundits haphazardly blame professors. In the event the conservative pundit making that assertion actually finished college – Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh did not – they would be able to look back at their own experience and realize that professors did not make any attempt to transform them.
Why is it that more undergrads and recent graduates are liberal? That’s easy. The world of conservatives does not extend to college universities. Some students will come to college with conservative preconceived ideas about who people are and how political and social matters work. Those conservative ideas are usually narrow, and as a student broadens their horizons that student will become more accepting of new ideas and people who were outside of their sociopolitical norms at home. At home, a potential college student is not exposed to nearly as much as they are in college. When I left Dover to enroll at OSU, I described myself as a moderate Democrat. You could count on one hand the number of blacks I was even acquainted with, and I do not think I knew any Jewish people. I had never lived within city or town limits and I had only been using a cell phone for a few months. Needless to say, my experience was different and exciting, but I do not recall being brainwashed or coerced.
The belief that students are being brainwashed by leftist professors is simply unfounded. The fact that conservatives see only the professors rather than the college experience, is a testament to their inability to see past their own preconceived notions. They do not see the transformation as a psychological response, but condescend to liberal students by claiming that they are not mentally strong enough to avoid being brainwashed. That liberal students have become liberal is in fact a testament to their psychological ability to adapt and respond. Having thought about my own transformation from moderate to liberal, I cannot help but wonder why some young men and women leave college just as conservative as they were before they enrolled.
Brian Murphy is a senior in political science. He can be reached at [email protected].
