Most Republicans think colleges and universities are bad for the country, according to a recently released report from the Pew Research Center.

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Recently hired CSU professor admits pretending to be a person of color Just 36 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the nation’s institutions of higher learning are having a positive effect on how things in the U.S. are going, while 72 percent of Democrats and people who lean Democratic think they are good for the country.

Democrats have felt that way for some time. But Republicans, both those with degrees and those without, are increasingly down on higher education. Just a couple of years ago, they held generally positive views about college. By last year, they were much more mixed, with 43 percent having positive views and 45 percent expressing negative views. But this year is the first time since Pew began asking the question in 2010 that a majority — 58% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents — feel negatively about college.

What’s going on? Pew declined to speculate on what’s driving these numbers, but Terry Moe, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a political science professor at Stanford University, isn’t surprised.

“It’s important to recognize that a lot of what we call public opinion is actually shaped by cue givers that people identify with,” he said. “So it turns out that if you listen to Fox News and if you listen to Donald Trump and a number of others who are prominent these days in Republican circles, there’s a lot of negativity surrounding higher education and a lot of positivity surrounding Russia, and, lo and behold, Republican public opinion has turned around on these subjects.”

After UC Berkeley canceled a planned talk by the conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos following violent protests, President Trump tweeted, “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”

If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017

That wasn’t generally seen as a legitimate threat and Cal still gets plenty of government money, but Moe still thinks the shift in opinion is “troubling” because most colleges are public and rely on public support, whether at the federal or state level. If a large chunk of the population views the schools negatively, he noted, it could become difficult for schools to get the budgets they need to operate.

Berkeley in particular has struggled in recent months to bat back negative coverage, much of it drummed up by national conservative groups in collaboration with the Berkeley College Republicans, who have accused Berkeley of limiting free speech.

“Republicans understand the value of a college degree, but are troubled by the current political climate on college campuses,” said Naweed Tahmas, a student spokesman for the Berkeley College Republicans. “Students are taught how to write perfect essays and how to code, but are no longer taught how to challenge, not protest, viewpoints they disagree with. Rigorous debate between opposing sides has become absent on college campuses.”

On the whole, Moe said, it is true that universities are liberal. More faculty and students identify as Democrats than in the general population, which could lead Republicans to think schools are biased against conservatives. But he thinks it’s also true that most schools want and try to be places where free speech and tolerance are cherished.

Conveying that message becomes complicated when “some bad actors purposefully create disturbances,” he said. The protests at Berkeley generated national attention and brought some people who were entirely unaffiliated with the school to the campus.

But there’s also the fact that sometimes hard science simply contradicts Republican policy priorities.

For instance, the party’s belief that climate change is not a serious problem caused by humans puts it into direct conflict with scientific research being done at major universities. “Higher education is about science and about pursuing objective truth,” Moe said, “and the body of literature and science higher education has produced contradicts a lot of what Republicans want to believe.”