# Question for college professors: What should a conservative do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099 "2019-08-23T13:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/81 "2019-08-25T21:55:54Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I doubt that any more than a few Dopers are actually college faculty, so most responses in this thread will be from non-faculty like us: Well, I Am a college professor, so I can give my 2 cents. There is no issue with conservative students being discriminated against for their beliefs. There is an issue with conservative students wanting to be asses without consequences, but that’s a different issue. Politics don’t usually make their way into the things that I teach. But evolution does. I’ll outline something that happens at least once a term, feel free to substitute whatever belief you want for the term “evolution”. It’s the same process happening. Me: _talking about the role of evolution in XY_ Creationist student" “Evolution is a myth! Blah blah blah!” Me: “I don’t care what you believe. Feel free not to believe in evolution. But I expect you to understand it, whether or not you personally believe it” _[As an aside, I took a comparative religion class in college. Even though I’m an atheist, when time came on the test to talk about various aspects and beliefs about god, I answered it. It didn’t matter if I personally believed it]_ Me: _gives test/assignment where student must demonstrate understanding of evolution_ CS: _writes test answer/assignment with creationist/illogical answer_ Me: _gives a big fat “F”_ CS: “Wah wah! I’m being discriminated against for my beliefs! I’m going to complain to your chair/dean/my mom and get you fired!!” Me: “Whatever dood” This is the kind of discrimination conservative students get. It’s not discrimination at all. They just want special coddling and a safe space for their beliefs and don’t want to be challenged. If that’s what they want, go to a fake place like Bob Jones University. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/82 "2019-08-26T00:31:15Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > DON’T DRAG POLITICS INTO EVERY SINGLE DISCUSSION. The problem with this all-caps philosophy is that it completely fails to work when your right to exist is considered a political question. A woman attending class instead of being a homemaker, men and women hanging out without a chaperone, trans people existing, gay people daring to mention that they have an SO or spouse, and more all hit conservative ‘hot button’ political topics simply by showing up. “DON’T DRAG POLITICS INTO EVERY SINGLE DISCUSSION” is actually saying that you want to exclude those people from being allowed to enter the discussion in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/83 "2019-08-26T00:32:48Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > No, No No. Look at my post #64 above. The college agreed to drop it. Again, we had a 5 page discussion of it. He DID take it to the dean and didnt see anything happening. > > Now what was brought up in the last discussion is that discipline of faculty takes place behind closed doors in secrecy so the student has no idea what if anything happened. > > I think this is a good point to make because many people in this discussion have said to take issues to the dean but if the student doesnt see anything come of it, what then should or could they do? > > BTW, if you would look at #64 above I post that the college dropped the charges against the student. The teacher later got an award. Look, this is how it works: you file a complaint against a coworker, a prof, or another student, and you won’t know what consequences that person had to face. That’s the way the law works. How the coworker, prof, or other student behaves after the complaint is what’s important. If it makes you feel better, a conservative social studies teacher where I used to teach ranted in class about how climate change is a bunch of BS and refused to allow students to disagree. (Climate change is not part of the curriculum.) Students complained. They have no way of knowing what, if any, consequences he faced. And they shouldn’t. And let’s not assume the teacher got the Faculty of the Year award BECAUSE of the incident. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/84 "2019-08-26T02:53:43Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I am a college instructor in a class that is pretty far removed from politics. > > If a student slammed men, or white people, or women, or black people, I would ask them to show respect for their fellow students. And I’d change the subject. And the other students would back me in changing the subject. And there’s zero chance the subject was relevant to my class. > > If one of my students physically assaulted another student (ripping off their hat) I’d ask them to leave the class and I’d discuss it with my supervisor. But really, I can’t imagine that happening. That’s so incredibly far from my experience of campus life. > > We do have a policy about wearing clothing with inappropriate messages. If a student arrived wearing a shirt that said, “fuck the police”, for instance, I would ask them to change their shirt. (Or turn it inside out.) A MAGA hat would be allowed, if you were wondering. > > Now, what might happen on my liberal campus is that the kid wearing the MAGA hat would be scorned by other students and have trouble making friends. But they might find other conservative to hang out with. Thanks for the feedback. Excellent points. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/85 "2019-08-26T03:09:13Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Maybe the student should step back and realize that the university isn’t obligated to act on frivolous complaints? > > Because, let’s be frank, this complaint was absolutely 100% frivolous. A student got upset that a professor said something bad about his favorite politician. It’s a total joke. Just take a step back and think of the reaction if a professor had called Obama a terrorist and slammed every democrat who voted for him. And I dont think a paid professor taking up classroom time to rant and rave just because her candidate lost and calling the winner a terrorist and implying bad things about the people who voted for him is “frivolous”. She knew damn good and well this would get out because everything gets filmed nowadays. She was the adult in the room and should have known better. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/86 "2019-08-26T03:14:14Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > Well, I Am a college professor, so I can give my 2 cents. There is no issue with conservative students being discriminated against for their beliefs. There is an issue with conservative students wanting to be asses without consequences, but that’s a different issue. > This is the kind of discrimination conservative students get. It’s not discrimination at all. They just want special coddling and a safe space for their beliefs and don’t want to be challenged. If that’s what they want, go to a fake place like Bob Jones University. As I said if I have a chance to counsel a student I usually tell them to not make a scene but to learn the topic and get the grade. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/87 "2019-08-26T03:23:52Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > How is this hypothetical liberal professor “targeting” their conservative students? I think they’re forcing him to become a black lesbian. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/88 "2019-08-26T03:40:12Z")
> [@Emiliana](#): > > I would agree but I’m not sure what you’re responding to in my post. It was my opinion based on you being able to be kind of “palsy-walsy” with a conservative leaning student. Obviously you two aren’t “pompous” about your views. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/89 "2019-08-26T11:36:40Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Just take a step back and think of the reaction if a professor had called Obama a terrorist and slammed every democrat who voted for him. I imagine the same thing would have happened and I’d have supported the dismissal of a frivolous complaint. > [@](#): > > And I dont think a paid professor taking up classroom time to rant and rave just because her candidate lost and calling the winner a terrorist and implying bad things about the people who voted for him is “frivolous”. Complaining that someone is a sore loser is the definition of frivolous playground stuff, confirmed by the college laughing the student out of the room. > [@](#): > > She was the adult in the room and should have known better. Unless there were early-enrollers, 100% of the people in the classroom were adults. College is for adults. Hopefully that student learned the adult lesson that you aren’t entitled to get someone in trouble every time your feelings get hurt. However, it’s very telling that you expect the liberal to be the adult in the room, and not the conservative. It does seem reasonable, but I’m surprised to hear a conservative say it. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/90 "2019-08-26T16:22:38Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > Your day was a long time ago. I’m currently attending a university and am majoring in two social science disciplines. One of them is sociology, which would be the most obvious for professors to rant about Trump screeching. However, in over ten SOC classes, not one professor has even mentioned Trump. I once asked a prof why not, privately during office hours. She said because it wouldn’t be conducive to her students’ learning which was the most important thing. She wants to produce students who can think for themselves. Other professors have steered classroom discussions away from Trump without comment. It’s pretty obvious they feel the same. > > This assumption by conservatives of what they’re SURE is going on in universities is so manufactured and ignorant. Unfortunately, it’s not very surprising. Education BAD! Learning BAD! :rolleyes: I was in college during the Bush (43) Administration at an institution that was known as very liberal. I had a couple of history professors who would frequently go off on anti-Bush (and, to some degree, anti-“America’s role in the world”) rants. It almost never had a tangible effect on the class (because it was usually largely irrelevant to the subject matter of the course), but it was off-putting. There were some professors (political science types mostly) whose overt hostility made me avoid taking classes with them (some also had reputations for penalizing conservative students who disagreed, but grading in those subjects is so subjective I don’t know how you could verify that). Then again, one of the things I remember mostly clearly, was one day there was an edict from the Dean’s office that professors should take the first ten minutes of the class period and discuss some specific significant issue or event that was roiling campus (I can’t remember what it was). And I remember my (very clearly left-wing) English literature professor announcing that he wasn’t going to do that because it wasn’t his place to lecture us on politics. Which position I respected greatly. In any event, I don’t think these experiences were particularly manufactured or unique to me. But they had no real effect on my academic experience. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/91 "2019-08-26T17:32:29Z")
Several friends of mine took a prep-course for a professional credentialling exam, and the instructor decided to take 45 minutes to rant about how homosexuals were taking over the public schools and they should all put their children in private school to protect them from the homosexual agenda. Or something like that. It was extremely awkward. There were gay people enrolled in the class. Even the students who agreed with the instructor’s politics were annoyed that he’d wasted their time talking about something irrelevant to the exam. But other than a lot of gossip, I don’t think anything came if it. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/92 "2019-08-26T19:49:59Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > This assumption by conservatives of what they’re SURE is going on in universities is so manufactured and ignorant. Unfortunately, it’s not very surprising. Education BAD! Learning BAD! :rolleyes: It might be rare but every time it does happen nowadays there is almost sure to be someone there with their phone recording it and it goes on the internet. Then there are sites like [Campus Reform](https://www.campusreform.org/) that expose some of things people professors and students on the left do on college campuses. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/93 "2019-08-26T19:56:09Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > It might be rare but every time it does happen nowadays there is almost sure to be someone there with their phone recording it and it goes on the internet. > > Then there are sites like [Campus Reform](https://www.campusreform.org/) that expose some of things people professors and students on the left do on college campuses. I have no doubt that the site you provided puts it all into context, showing how rare this is if you look at how many class-hours there are in all the classes in all the schools, right? Plus, I’m sure it also shows videos of white supremacists and racial “realists” giving their talks at schools, as examples of intolerance on the right. And, it no doubt shows creationists and climate change deniers talking in class about their counter-factual theories as examples of ridiculous things that conservatives bring into class, right? Please enlighten me, because I’m sure not visiting that site. You never answered my question above – you went to college. How did you deal with this awful situation that’s heaped upon conservatives? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/94 "2019-08-26T20:02:47Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Ok,\*\* its a given that most colleges tilt to the left\*\*. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/95 "2019-08-26T20:20:56Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Cite? > [@](#): > > The industry dramatically favors liberals and as become more liberal in preference as the industry has spent more money. Democrats haven’t received under 70 percent of education industry donations in a cycle since 2002. In 2018, individuals from the education industry gave more than $64.5 million to Democrats and just $7.8 million to Republicans. [source](https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=w04) You really needed a cite for that? ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/96 "2019-08-26T20:21:02Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > They have a liberal professor who’s openly against and targets conservative students? How is this hypothetical liberal professor “targeting” their conservative students? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/97 "2019-08-26T20:49:05Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > [source](https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=w04) > > You really needed a cite for that? Truth is politically biased? ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/98 "2019-08-26T20:57:22Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Truth is politically biased? Most colleges tilt to the left. That’s the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/99 "2019-08-26T21:53:07Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Most colleges tilt to the left. That’s the truth. Most faculty tilt left because educated people tend to tilt left. Apart from the occasional ideological diatribes, left or right, in the classroom, it doesn’t much affect the work we do. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099/100 "2019-08-26T21:55:10Z")
I had a right wing history professor at Berkeley. Didn’t like his class. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-college-professors-what-should-a-conservative-do/839099.md?page=6)