Political Climates at Certain Universities

[A blighted one]

Hi all,

Because I'm currently obsessing about my (uncertain) future, I've been thinking about politics at my possible future schools. I don't mean departmental politics, but rather the political leanings of both faculty and students. I'm from California, have interests in both feminism and Marxism, and over all would say I lean quite far to the left.  It has recently dawned on me that I may be spending the next few years of my life immersed in a community that holds radically different views/values than my own. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I would prefer to attend a less conservative school so as to be able to engage fully with my political and academic interests.

Maybe I'm overreacting here, and honestly, I'm not freaking out over it or anything. A friend of mine recently told me that one of the schools I applied for was very conservative, which came as a shock. I guess I figured that most research universities these days were fairly liberal. I have found myself questioning some of the Jesuit universities I recently applied for.

I guess my question is: is this a real concern? Does anyone know of any resources for finding out more information about the overall politics of certain universities? 

Edited January 15, 2016 by A blighted one
Edit: typo

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I've found the "city guide" here on this forum to be quite helpful. Otherwise, a Wikipedia page can tell a lot about cities!

I'm from the Bible belt and spent the summer in Boulder, so I went the opposite direction; it's more important than you'd think.

[fuzzylogician]

14 minutes ago, A blighted one said:

I guess my question is: is this a real concern? Does anyone know of any resources for finding out more information about the overall politics of certain universities? 

Yes, I'd say it's a concern, both in terms of the environment in your department and in the geographical area that you'll be living in (and those two are often related). How much of a concern it would be depends on the individual. At this point, since you've already submitted all your applications (I assume), I would advise to wait and see what your outcomes are. Then you can read up on the geographical area of the schools you've been admitted to, and you can visit the schools to get a sense of what they're like. You could (carefully!) bring up the issue of politics with students when you get a chance to chat with them when faculty aren't around. 

[katpillow]

8 hours ago, A blighted one said:

I guess my question is: is this a real concern? Does anyone know of any resources for finding out more information about the overall politics of certain universities? 

Some universities are pretty open about their leanings... some not so much. My alma prided itself on having a 'neutral' stance, though the students tended to be fairly right-leaning libertarian in nature, I would say.

[A blighted one]

17 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I've found the "city guide" here on this forum to be quite helpful. Otherwise, a Wikipedia page can tell a lot about cities!

I'm from the Bible belt and spent the summer in Boulder, so I went the opposite direction; it's more important than you'd think.

I've definitely spent a lot of time browsing the City Guide, here. Can't imagine bible belt-->Boulder, must have been a shock!

 

17 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

Yes, I'd say it's a concern, both in terms of the environment in your department and in the geographical area that you'll be living in (and those two are often related). How much of a concern it would be depends on the individual. At this point, since you've already submitted all your applications (I assume), I would advise to wait and see what your outcomes are. Then you can read up on the geographical area of the schools you've been admitted to, and you can visit the schools to get a sense of what they're like. You could (carefully!) bring up the issue of politics with students when you get a chance to chat with them when faculty aren't around. 

This is what I assumed.  I'll probably try to get a feel for the universities I applied for as best I can via internet research, but will do some more serious investigation if I have real prospects down the road. Thanks for your input!

 

8 hours ago, katpillow said:

Some universities are pretty open about their leanings... some not so much. My alma prided itself on having a 'neutral' stance, though the students tended to be fairly right-leaning libertarian in nature, I would say.

I'll have to do some university googling, I guess.

[nightfarmer]

I am applying to doctoral programs after having completed an MA in history. I was concerned about the political climate of my future MA, but ended up in a more conservative school than I had hoped because it checked other important boxes.

It's a good idea to try to land in a place with people you enjoy having a dialogue with, which usually comes with being around like-minded people. However, it was incredibly helpful to me to be around educated conservatives. I didn't 'convert' or anything like that, but my ideas and my approach to discourse both matured in very important ways. I am now much better equipped to have constructive debates with the world around me. Additionally, I genuinely understand world events in a more nuanced and realistic way, whereas before I had (I would imagine) stuck to my liberal guns and forced myself to see everything through that lens, no matter what.

So I say make the political leaning of schools one of several criteria when choosing a program, but don't place too much emphasis on it. Just my $0.02.

[CornUltimatum]

In my particular school the political climate varied drastically between departments. I attended Texas Tech University, which is located in West Texas. The climate in the town is *extremely,* conservative, however within the University the political climate varied a lot. The history department was very open to Marxism, the English department was very feminist, the science departments were more moderate and impassioned about politics, and business tended to be conservative. Overall the school was still more conservative leaning but there was a place and support for all political interests to thrive. The political climate and discussions were generally very healthy. 

 

I would take fuzzylogician's advice and visit the school in person, and you may be surprised. I would say it's a concern though, since some people have a difficult time separating political opinion from professional work. You may face bias and ostracization. Other-times the person or the department in general with a differing opinion can separate these two things without issue and you have a perfectly healthy climate. It's hard to say from just looking from the outside. Talk with some graduate students who are already attending there and get their point of view on the issue. 

[TakeruK]

I also second the advice to take the time to visit and make a decision based on your experience there. I've found that, especially in academia, there can be many pockets where there are very strong and passionate opinions. Sometimes it's the University "vs" the town, sometimes it's even differences between disciplines on campus. And, in some cases, all of these strong and different opinions mix together in a healthy way, while in other places, they cause a lot of friction and tension.

I think it's really important to go to a place that you are comfortable in. This is not to say that you must go to a place where everyone believes exactly the same thing as you. But to me, I need to be in a place where I can feel comfortable expressing myself and not feel like I have to hide who I am in order to not piss off the faculty or my colleagues. What comfort looks like is a personal choice that is best observed by visiting and being yourself

One last point: I guess this will depend a lot on your field and also your personality, but I personally don't think the "school's" political leanings make a real big difference to my day-to-day life, so it didn't really matter much for me. For example, I would describe myself as a fairly liberal person but I think the governing bodies of my school is fairly conservative. This leads to occasional frustration where the governing body (e.g. The Board of Trustees) refuse to act on some issues. For example, when the California State Assembly was debating AB2350 in 2014 (a bill to prevent pregnancy discrimination by mandating certain protections for pregnant graduate students), there was a group asking for schools to sign on in support of this bill. Many schools did, but my school refused to get involved. However, my school's current policies already exceeds the minimum requirements mandated by AB2350 (and recently, they even increased paid maternity leave). The school just did not want to get involved and "take sides".

I mention this because even knowing the way my school prefers to operate politically, I would still recommend my school to someone like me. Yes, you will be occasionally frustrated here, but it's not something that affects your day-to-day life. And to be honest, my interactions with other schools' board of trustees (or similar governing bodies) tend to be more conservative. I know that some of the schools discussed here are far more conservative than the schools I've experienced though, so maybe that would affect your day-to-day life there! Also, while not completely divorced, I think some scientific fields (such as mine) are less related to political viewpoints so it's not common for politics to come up in conversation.