“Anybody who supports Donald Trump or is a Republican is just hated.”

Based on what we’ve seen in recent years, it’s probably safe to say conservative students are unwelcome on many college campuses but it’s worth noting documentations of this perceived bias.

A new survey about student life at Yale confirms what we already knew.

The Yale Daily News reports:

Election 2016: Conservative views considered unwelcome at Yale Despite ongoing campus discussions about free speech, Yale remains deeply unwelcoming to students with conservative political beliefs, according to a News survey distributed earlier this month. Nearly 75 percent of 2,054 respondents who completed the survey — representing views across the political spectrum — said they believe Yale does not provide a welcoming environment for conservative students to share their opinions on political issues. Among the 11.86 percent of respondents who described themselves as either “conservative” or “very conservative,” the numbers are even starker: Nearly 95 percent said the Yale community does not welcome their opinions. About two-thirds of respondents who described themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal” said Yale is not welcoming to conservative students. “Anybody who supports Donald Trump or is a Republican is just hated,” said one respondent, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash from liberal students. “I just get the general vibe that Republicans aren’t respected for their beliefs as much as maybe the liberal people are.” More than 60 percent of the 103 Yale students supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said they are “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” discussing their political beliefs at Yale… By contrast, more than 98 percent of respondents said Yale is welcoming to students with liberal beliefs. And among students who described themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal,” 85 percent said they are “comfortable” or “very comfortable” sharing their political views in campus discussions.

It’s ironic that college students who hold liberal views are the ones who require safe spaces despite enjoying a comfortable majority on campuses.

Hat tip to Jonathan Haidt:

Bipartisan agreement at Yale: Yale is “deeply unwelcoming” to conservatives. (Kudos to YDN for doing the study) https://t.co/DJfnbLFesW — Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt) October 27, 2016

Political imbalances like this one aren’t limited to the student body. Last fall, Professor Jacobson wrote about a similar finding among the faculty at Cornell:

97% of faculty donations at Cornell Univ. to Democrats How politically diverse is the Cornell University faculty? Not very, according to a study done by The Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper. By dollar volume, 96.62% of political donations during 2011-2014 went to Democratic candidates or related PACs, and just 2.76% to Republicans or related PACs. By number of donors, rather than dollar amount, the contrast is equally stark. There were only 15 faculty members who donated to Republicans, out of a total of 323 faculty donors, or 5 percent. There were a total of 1628 faculty at the university as of 2013, but there is not reason to suspect that the 323 donors are not representative of the total. I was one of the 15, which might make me part of the smallest minority on campus. The Daily Sun reports, Cornell Faculty Donations Flood Left, Filings Show: Of the nearly $600,000 Cornell’s faculty donated to political candidates or parties in the past four years, over 96 percent has gone to fund Democratic campaigns, while only 15 of the 323 donors gave to conservative causes. The Sun’s analysis of Federal Election Committee data reveals that from 2011 to 2014, Cornell’s faculty donated $573,659 to Democrats, $16,360 to Republicans and $2,950 to Independents. Each of Cornell’s 13 schools — both graduate and undergraduate — slanted heavily to the left. In the College of Arts and Sciences, 99 percent of the $183,644 donated went to liberal campaigns. The law school demonstrated the strongest conservative showing, with nearly 26 percent of its approximately $20,000 worth of donations going to Republicans.

Institutions of higher education in America are obsessed with diversity.

Unless it’s intellectual diversity.



