I attended college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a far-left institution with a left-wing student body if there ever was one. When I started writing for my campus newspaper’s opinion section, I was the first conservative voice to feature on their op-ed page in any meaningful way in years.

Suffice it to say my columns were not well received. I was met with hundreds of hateful comments on every article, called every name in the book, sent hate mail, and had my life threatened on numerous occasions. My detractors even came up with a hashtag, #BradIsBad, that locally trended on Facebook when my articles were released. I also became a pariah within the gay community on campus, making dating as a young, gay conservative quite difficult.

But guess what? It was not the end of the world. I was hardly victimized, and my life wasn’t negatively impacted in much of a meaningful way long-term.

And that was as an outspoken columnist and advocate on one of the most left-wing public schools in the country (UMass is the only majority-Marxist economics department in the U.S.).

So it makes me sad, but also a bit annoyed, that most right-leaning students aren’t even willing to speak up in class.

A new poll from the College Fix found that “nearly three-quarters of [Republican students] have withheld their political views in class for fear their grades would suffer.” Among students that either strongly or weakly lean Republican, around 70% reported that they self-censor their views and take liberal positions on essays or in class out of fear their grades would suffer if they were honest about their positions.

This is foolish and cowardly.

For one, the threat of unfair grading seems vastly exaggerated. Yes, professors are overwhelmingly liberal or leftist, and as intellectual diversity is valuable, that’s certainly a problem. But liberal professors are perfectly capable of grading conservative students fairly — almost all of mine did. Conservative critics have yet to provide demonstrative data, non-anecdotal evidence, or social science backing up their claims that unfair grading is a common occurrence. In fact, it’s easier to get good grades in college than ever before.

But even if professors are unfair and biased, it is still immoral and cowardly to lie just for good grades. Several of the students who responded to the College Fix survey, for example, indicated that they hid their pro-life beliefs for fear of an in-class backlash.

Are you kidding me?

So often I hear conservatives wonder how so many liberals have received so little exposure to other views, leaving them intolerant and clueless that the world doesn't revolve around their perspective. Well, this is how it happens — because conservatives are too timid to voice those other views in their presence. They never got to hear a seemingly reasonable classmate or a friend say something that challenged their personal dogma. In chickening out, you're doing those around you a disservice.

It’s shameful that any student who purports to stand up for the value of human life would sit by mum and not defend that position because they’re afraid they might get a C on a paper or dirty looks from classmates. If you won’t stand up for your core principles when a grade on your transcript is all that’s at stake, you won’t stand up for your principles in your adult life, when much greater challenges emerge and the stakes are much higher.

Conservative students face a number of serious disadvantages on college campuses, whether it’s restrictive anti-speech policies, deplatforming, or an Overton window tilted far to the left. But they’ve got to face these challenges with courage, not cowardice. If you’re not willing to sacrifice for your beliefs, even on something as minor as a grade, maybe your beliefs aren’t that serious.