Hello All,

I read in "Human Events" several weeks ago about the Straussian PolySci department at Kenyon College, and it made me wonder: What other predominantly liberal colleges have conservative/libertarian departments residing within them and what departments are they? Besides Kenyon College, I've already heard about the University of Chicago, Auburn, George Mason and Clemson's libertarian economic depts. What other hidden gems are there?

Stephen Wade
Marion,IN

berkeley! a school cant particularly exclusively brand itself as a school that is officially one political party because its discriminatory and discourages students from applying. its not a big deal though, if youre against it, then dont be part of it.

Of course, no state university is officially Democratic or Republican, or liberal or conservative, and even the private ones, in their great majority, are not official exponents of a particular ideology.

Nonetheless, the Left, from soft to hard, dominates the university system. If you attend university in the United States, you will be presented with a range of ideological viewpoints: liberalism, post-modernism, generalized social radicalism, Marxism, feminism, critical theory ... but it will be rare for you to encounter a conservative or libertarian of any sort.

The situation is somewhat better than average in economics departments, because they are closer to social reality. And there are probably more conservatives and other non-liberals in engineering and hard sciences, but even here, liberals pre-dominate. However, in the sciences, it hardly matters what your professor thinks about the war or affirmative action.

Thus a kind pg "register" of non-liberal academics could be quite useful for intending students. This would allow those who must attend a liberal univeristy (the great majority of students) to seek out those professors from whom they could learn about the great ideas of conservatism.

This ought to include individuals, as well as Departments. A Department can be liberal in its majority, but have a few conservative or libertarian thinkers (this is rare, due to the ruthless weeding-out of Oldthinkers by academic hiring committees, but does happen).

And, to be fair, we should acknowledge that there are perfectly decent, balanced liberal professors who will not discriminate against their students on the basis of their students' heretical ideas. They cannot be expected to teach the conservative thinkers with the same enthusiasm and understanding that a conservative would, but you can still learn a great deal from them.

Also: every young conservative should take a few courses from Leftists, provided you can do so without it impacting your G.P.A. Life is struggle, and you need to learn what the Enemy is thinking, and to get some experience defending your ideas in a hostile environment.

My ideal department of X studies would include a balance of both Left and Right, with all or most of the diffferent currents of thinking of each present.

But if you do find yourself "behind enemy lines" -- don't despair. You are ideally placed to start doing some proselytizing. Take the fight to the Enemy. There are bound to be a few other conservative students on your campus -- perhaps more than you think. It just takes getting organized, inviting conservative speakers, starting a study group, holding events ... so form an ISI group and get going!