Last week Insider Higher Education offered a helpful summary of a new study that dug down a bit into the culture of higher education to see how conservative students survive and thrive.
The study found that students at an elite liberal arts college tended to have positive experiences, even though they knew themselves to be in an ideological minority. By contrast, conservative students at a large public research university felt afflicted.
The authors of the study, Amy J. Binder, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego, and Kate Wood, a graduate student at UCSD, speculate that class size and a unified campus culture makes a difference. With small classes and an emphasis on the college community, conservatives at the small liberal arts college felt that they were included. At the big state university ideology loomed larger, perhaps because the personal dimension remains so remote.
That sounds right to me. The main message sent by elite private colleges and universities to students is “you belong.” The main message at big rambling public research universities is “whatever.”
We’re social animals, and we need to identify with a group. In a deep sense, a small private college like the one I went to (Haverford College) is conservative. It saw its own history and identity as intrinsically valuable, and therefore served as a pre-political, mediating institution. Although certainly dominated at the time by an establishment liberalism, students were socialized into the college without regard to the ideological convictions of the day. To be a “Haverfordian” was more important that being a liberal—though, again, there was a great deal of overlap.
Faced with “whatever,” we tend to fall back onto groups chosen in accord with our sentiments and beliefs. And because our sentiments and beliefs are so strongly influenced by contemporary social symbolism and the bombardment of media sound bites, our affiliations can take on a thin, ideological quality by default. That’s as true for faculty as students, which is why Big State U. can be more viciously ideological than a small college that is perhaps even more liberal by certain measures.
One interesting feature of the study can be found in the fact that conservative students found their beliefs challenged, and in being challenged, strengthened and deepened. What about the liberal students?
One worry I have about civil society in America is that liberals are becoming stupid, because they won’t admit that they are being challenged (except in the realm of electoral politics), which is why they move so quickly to attacking motives (e.g., their opponents are bigots). I hope some of those elite colleges that provide a positive and challenging environment for conservative students would do so for the larger cohort of liberal students as well. It might help make politics more intelligent.
August 23rd, 2010 | 3:01 pm
“One worry I have about civil society in America is that liberals are becoming stupid, because they won’t admit that they are being challenged (except in the realm of electoral politics), which is why they move so quickly to attacking motives (e.g., their opponents are bigots).”
I think Professor Reno’s worry “that liberals are becoming stupid” is justifiable and reasonable. I wish it wasn’t so, but it has to be diagnosed and mentioned.
August 23rd, 2010 | 3:26 pm
“One interesting feature of the study can be found in the fact that conservative students found their beliefs challenged, and in being challenged, strengthened and deepened.”
Yup — and that’s why, I think, we’re smarter and tougher. We have to be, because we’ve been fighting uphill.
Be interesting to get hold of Jordan Hylden, former junior fellow of FT and Harvard grad, to see what he might make of this.
August 23rd, 2010 | 8:42 pm
I am currently a student a a Big State U, and I fully agree with Reno’s observations. While it’s true that my professors are generally as liberal as the day is long and they often calumniate Christianity and social conservatives in their lectures (thus saying many things that I could take offense at if I were so inclined), I am able to overlook and forgive much of what they say because these same professors have been kind to me personally and quite generous with their time and attention. I really don’t think they even know that they’re being offensive, and therefore I do not necessarily feel like I’m being assailed from the lectern.
The sense of affliction I experience comes from being totally outside the boundaries of “coolness” as it exists on college campuses. It’s difficult to form lasting relationships with other students when we are ideologically worlds apart. The sense of being a ghettoized minority begins to harden into a more or less permanent feeling. The situation becomes desperate as one begins to suspect (as I do) that one’s opportunities for personal, social, and romantic advancement are withering due to the lack of peer connections. This results in feelings of loneliness, emotional guardedness, cautiousness, and suspiciousness which become almost impossible to shake off as time goes on.
Is this the cross I have to bear? Is this the price of remaining true to to the faith? Or is it merely a personal psychological difficulty of mine? Will I ever be liked/loved/respected? Do I have a place in the sunlit world, or must I remain an outcast, far away from the company of men?
These are the questions that trouble me as I go about my student career. These are the questions that become acute when opportunity beckons, when amorous feelings are aroused, and when decisions with long-term consequences need to be made. I cannot speak for all Christian conservative students, but I myself have found the landscape very hard to navigate.
August 24th, 2010 | 8:44 am
Matt,
With that level of articulateness, what I would recommend is that you think about writing a diary to use as a base for a book recounting your university experiences. (you can always change names to protect privacy afterwards)
And, if the opportunities for establishing deeper friendships or finding a soul-mate are few and far between in your current environment, I would also suggest trying as much as possible to seek out other environments, groups, and people. There is too much lost when we are deprived of this fundamentally important part of life by being in a hostile or alienated environment, such as an ideological ghetto.
Best of luck, in any case,
Alessandra
August 24th, 2010 | 3:33 pm
Dear Matt -
After reading your comment, I have faith in this upcoming generation. It IS incredibly hard to keep the faith when you are surrounded by the liberalism so prevalent in universities. But my friend, you are not alone. There are others of you out there, probably feeling exactly the way you do.
Stand strong! I will pray for you. :-)
Melissa
August 24th, 2010 | 8:28 pm
The cynic in me says that “elite” liberal arts school administrators believe that the tuition money from conservative students and their parents “belong there” as well. (I think that the generous public funding available to public schools enables their “whatever” attitude.) And if they can turn you into a liberal while your on campus, then they’ve had their cake and eaten it too!
My experience at one such school was generally positive, but I recall that the students who espoused most vociferously the secularism, materialism, relativism, and liberalism that they heard during lectures and school-sponsored events seem to have had greater success socially and academically, especially if they majored in the social sciences or humanities.
But we must ‘hope against hope’…
Be not afraid Mr. Beck! Though my lack of wisdom and courage provided little support for my conservative Christian classmates many years ago, I hope that my prayers for you and your friends will help you ‘carry your cross’. (Please know, however, that the aggressively secular setting that you find yourselves in now may get only slightly better after graduation). Such adversity builds not only a strong character, but qualities for leadership—that will serve you (and the rest of us) well. May God bless you richly.
September 3rd, 2010 | 12:11 pm
Irenaeus:
Yeah, this study meshes pretty well with my experience in college. For me, Harvard gave the experience of feeling as though I was back on my heels, explaining myself to very smart yet often uncomprehending and skeptical students. It’s an experience that’s stuck with me; you do indeed have to work harder, and have to become more civil and understanding of opposing views than the other guys. It’s the only way you’ll be listened to. Liberals, by contrast, aren’t challenged in this way and so likely don’t have the same experience.
To my mind, Ross Douthat is Exhibit A of this kind of student. He now does this, basically, for a living– and extraordinarily well.
Of course, not all conservatives at places like Harvard wind up this way. You can also wind up in little conservative cliques that are more interested in provocation than conversation. But it seems to me like these types are in the minority.
If any young liberals find their way to this blog, it’d be interesting to hear their take on this.
Jordan
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