Did you have a lot of left wing professors?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Did you have a lot of left wing professors?

Posted: 9/30/2011 8:55:00 AM EDT

I ask this because it seems to pop up very frequently on this board.

I go to a well known public university with one of the better poli sci programs and a focus on liberal arts in general (I'm a poli sci / history major in my junior year of undergrad). I'm a pretty conservative guy with regards to most things, but I honestly can only say I've once had 2 classes where the professor made any note of their belief- and that was ASTR 102, and at the start of the semester he said, "If I start talking politics, then someone call me on it and I'll stop." For the rest of that class, the most political he got was the pro-Obama sticker on his laptop which was never mentioned past the first day.

I did drop a class my sophomore year after the first day with a professor who I knew from the moment I was in that class was a left wing nut. Her assignments involved reading the New York Times every day and compiling a portfolio of newspaper clippings. Real groundbreaking work there, teach, glad you're making a salary out of that stuff

I've had a lot of professors, some even very well known in their fields. If anyone is familiar with George Rabinowitz, I had him- he was a very well known liberal and I found him to be nothing but free of bias and very approachable and even headed towards students.

I'm not sure if I'm the exception to the rule or if maybe some folks fly off the handle at the first sign of political disagreement.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:03:05 AM EDT

[#1]

Most were and are very liberal. Occasionally there are hard core conservatives.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:04:02 AM EDT

[#2]

I've had several that were off the charts left

one of note was my professor for one of my classes last year. Was convinced the NRA was an evil organization who wants to give all children guns and arm convicted felons, civilized society has no need for guns, believed the entire main stream media was too right leaning, didn't believe in violence, and last but not least, the 2nd amendment doesnt apply to the individual citizen.

When i asked him who it did apply to, and why it doesnt apply to us but the 1st amendment which he mentioned several times that class, did. He looked at me and mumbled that i should see him in his office hours if i have questions, then continued

I packed up my shit and walked out with him telling me to sit back down that class wasn't over

Did i mention this was all in the first class

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:05:45 AM EDT

[#3]

Only had one engineering Prof that was a lefty. Many of the general ed types were. It was fun proving them wrong.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:06:37 AM EDT

[#4]

For my history degree - maybe one (slightly)
In law school (an actual communist).

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:07:30 AM EDT

[#5]

I had one who was a conservative and a lot who were somewhat or very left.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:07:50 AM EDT

[#6]

No, then again I want to college in the early 70's and most of my profs were Korean war/WWII vets.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:08:03 AM EDT

[#7]

So far, almost all of them have been very balanced in that they will give both sides to controversial issues. Some of them have clearly been liberal, some of them have been clearly conservative, and some of them have been some sort of something else.

I have yet to run into a professor whose political views have affected either the coursework, my grade, or the lectures. (The only exception to this was my intercultural communication class, but that was expected by the nature of the course)

I am 5/8 done with school.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:08:54 AM EDT

[#8]

Only until I discovered Chianti...and fava beans.....

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:11:10 AM EDT

[#9]

In law school yes. Had one professor travel to Africa and upon return change her name to an "African" sounding name. Everything in her class was race based and ultra-lib.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:13:23 AM EDT

[#10]

Really only one that was actually hardcore about it. I did have an awesome Libertarian professor for Math and was also my College Bowl(trivia) coach.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:16:07 AM EDT

[#11]

There are a majority that are liberal at the school I attend now. I do have to admit that about half the liberals keep their opinions out of the classroom altogether, and are hard to tell unless you really focus on trying to figure it out. Another quarter preach their liberal opinions but wont punish you for differing. The other quarter––well, all bets are off.

Conservative ones, however, are present in small numbers. I guess this would be a good time to post this (took it yesterday):

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:20:09 AM EDT

[#12]

We had a Capital Punishment panel at my school last Monday. Not one of the professors was actually pro-capital punishment, so they had to pretend. The "anti's" were European diplomats.

TLDR: We could't find one professor in my law school who was pro-Capital Punishment

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:26:37 AM EDT

[#13]

I've only had one in four years, and he was mild. I'm in an engineering program at a University known for engineering. We never really get on the topic of politics, but one physics professor loved to relate everything back to his hybrid, and pat himself on the fucking back about saving the planet. Trucks should be outlawed, everyone should have to drive a small car blah blah blah... Quite a distraction in school, glad I don't have to deal with it much.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:28:58 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:

There are a majority that are liberal at the school I attend now. I do have to admit that about half the liberals keep their opinions out of the classroom altogether, and are hard to tell unless you really focus on trying to figure it out. Another quarter preach their liberal opinions but wont punish you for differing. The other quarter––well, all bets are off.

Conservative ones, however, are present in small numbers. I guess this would be a good time to post this (took it yesterday):

http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab23/ckichinko/photo-3.png

Do you go to JMU?

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:32:52 AM EDT

[#15]

Yes!

I signed up for Modern Latin Studies. The very first day of class the professor at USF showed Al Gore's movie.

That had nothing to do with the course... God only knows what else he was going to present throughout the semester.

I withdrew the same day.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:35:23 AM EDT

[#16]

I've only had two, possibly three Liberal professors. If there were any others, they did a good job hiding their beliefs. On the other hand, I have had quite a few self admitted libertarians and Conservatives. This all depends on your area of study.

I even had one Philosophy teacher go off on a few rants about socialism. That was surprising and entertaining.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:35:46 AM EDT

[#17]

Most of my teachers have been left wing crazies.

I am very happy to say that my German teacher this semester is a right wing guy, and a duck hunter. It is refreshing to have a teacher you can talk guns to while watching all the liberal students roll their eyes!

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:37:00 AM EDT

[#18]

I'm taking 4 classes this semester. It's been 5 weeks now and no one has outed themselves as being anything other than teachers.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:37:28 AM EDT

[#19]

I had a right wing professor once. Once.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:38:24 AM EDT

[#20]

I go to a small baptist university so most of the profs are on the Conservative side, but we still have a good handful of liberal profs.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:47:24 AM EDT

[#21]

I had several that were right wing. Most were not. One used to talk about his theory of "meta-socialism."

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:49:36 AM EDT

[#22]

I have a technical degree, so for the most part no.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:56:21 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
There are a majority that are liberal at the school I attend now. I do have to admit that about half the liberals keep their opinions out of the classroom altogether, and are hard to tell unless you really focus on trying to figure it out. Another quarter preach their liberal opinions but wont punish you for differing. The other quarter––well, all bets are off.

Conservative ones, however, are present in small numbers. I guess this would be a good time to post this (took it yesterday):

http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab23/ckichinko/photo-3.png

What kind of bike it that?

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:58:45 AM EDT

[#24]

Some of the professors from my lower level classes were liberal. Mostly the science professors. Once I got to my criminal justice classes, no more liberals.

Posted: 9/30/2011 9:59:34 AM EDT

[#25]

No. I went to Texas A&M.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:00:06 AM EDT

[#26]

English prof that made the class watch Bowling for Columbine and a Comms Prof that had a life time subscription to New York Times because it is the best paper out there bar none. The subject for my papers in those classes always seemed to be a bit more conservative than in other non politically motivated classes.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:01:02 AM EDT

[#27]

I'm not sure. Very few of them spoke enough English for me to know what they thought.

<––- Computer Science major.

eta: the liberal professors seemed MUCH more vocal when Bush was in office.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:01:45 AM EDT

[#28]

The only professors I had who were NOT left-wing were in math, physics, chemistry, computer science, and biology. All of the others, way far left.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:07:32 AM EDT

[#29]

Strangely, my liberal arts courses were taught by liberals.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:09:41 AM EDT

[#30]

I have never met one who was not a "Useful Idiot"
This Reminds me of what Yuri said!

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:24:12 AM EDT

[#31]

No professors that I know for sure were liberals, but I think maybe 2-3. Definitely know of one professor(probably 3 that I think) that was a conservative, he made that known first day outright. Funny since I switched courses after the first day die to it being on the opposite side of campus.

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Posted: 9/30/2011 10:27:44 AM EDT

[#32]

VA Tech 20 years ago...

I'd say 70% were known to tilt left if not fall over. 30% were unknown as they didn't advertise their politics.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:32:24 AM EDT

[#33]

Not ONE SINGLE ONE of mine was a Lefty. I guess that is another reason BYU is awesome.

Now, I'm waiting for the "Well, at least I could drink beer and coke" jokes to start rolling in....

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:33:46 AM EDT

[#34]

The ones who were successful were conservatives. The frumpy, shitty car driving, poorly-clothed ones with no real life experience were Communist pillow-biting lefties.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:37:06 AM EDT

[#35]

ALL of them.

Now, 12 years later, I'm back at my alma mater as faculty, bring much-needed balance to the situation!

This poster is on my office wall:

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:40:52 AM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
Not ONE SINGLE ONE of mine was a Lefty. I guess that is another reason BYU is awesome.

Now, I'm waiting for the "Well, at least I could drink beer and coke" jokes to start rolling in....

Inbound

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:42:53 AM EDT

[#37]

Both my history profs are pretty conservative.

Posted: 9/30/2011 10:48:14 AM EDT

[#38]

accounting instructors tend to be on the conservative side of things.

Posted: 9/30/2011 11:31:43 AM EDT

[#39]

I had a US History 1776-1877 prof that was pretty liberal.

The books he made us read were all historical points of view from minorities from whatever particular time we were learning about.

I refused to read them, but could gather enough info from class discussions to know all I needed to know on the tests.

Luckily, I haven't had too many experiences with ultra-left professors. One advantage of A&M, though we have our share, they are usually pretty quiet about their Commie beliefs.

Posted: 9/30/2011 11:35:35 AM EDT

[#40]

I just completed an MBA at a pretty well known university and I think only one Prof. was clearly a Dem voter. Business/accounting/finance profs tend to lean right.

Posted: 9/30/2011 11:40:41 AM EDT

[#41]

To my knowledge, all of my history and political science professors were left leaning- some more than others. Most of them weren't overbearing, though and were open to other's ideas. I had one Sociology professor who was very overt and was not cool with other perspectives- he made it clear that for the sake of his class, work on the assumption that his word was the truth. Before his class, I was actually considering a sociology minor and he turned me away from the subject. A couple of my POLS professors seemed to be left leaning libertarians, which was interesting. One of my favorite history TAs was openly left-leaning, but he was very accepting and professional... I never wittnessed a professor knock a grade down over affiliation.

In grad school (Education), I was just about the only person I knew who was not a leftist. Despite being open about it, most did an excellent job of keeping their instruction professional. I had a couple who definetely went too far, but they happened to be two of the best ed professors that I had...I'm glad to have taken their classes. One was an active member of the local Democratic Party and held elected office. Despite his occasional diatribes, he was approachable and implemented techniques and methods that truly facilitated the development/ improvement of my professional skill set. I can say very similar things about another professor who was about as far left as they come. He would regularly go on distribes, the pedagogical theories he taught were especially radical (enough that he went so far as to disclaim that they were, admitting that implementing them would probably get you fired....though he truly believed in them and did present some scientific data to that effect). At the same time, he did make sure to emphasize needing to be personally comfortable with your content and methods. There were a couple of times when I openly interjected my affiliation, after he would grossly mis-state something––- he seemed comfortable enough with it. I earned As from both profs.

Posted: 9/30/2011 1:12:00 PM EDT

[#42]

Quoted:

I just completed an MBA at a pretty well known university and I think only one Prof. was clearly a Dem voter. Business/accounting/finance profs tend to lean right.

Yep. The management professors usually have their heads screwed on right, for the most part.

Posted: 9/30/2011 1:35:13 PM EDT

[#43]

I went to tech school instead of collage.

The instructors had to teach a spacific curriculum so i didn't have to put up with that liberal shit.

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Posted: 9/30/2011 1:48:51 PM EDT

[#44]

Yes.

The overwhelming majority of my profs were left-wing in both college and law school. In fact, I found if in various liberal arts courses if I slanted my papers or essay answers to project that I was a liberal that I received slightly higher grades then when I didn't. For instance, include words like diversity or sustainability in an essay answer somehow and watch your grade up from a B to an A pretty quick.

The more communist you sound in a poltiical science class the better your grade. No doubt about that.

Posted: 9/30/2011 1:53:44 PM EDT

[#45]

Classes in my major (forestry) were pretty good on the conservative front, as were technical classes like chem, math, physics, etc.

English, humanities, anything to do with social sciences was about as hardcore leftist as you can get.

Posted: 9/30/2011 2:06:42 PM EDT

[#46]

My public speaking prof was a dyed in the wool lib, but he kept his beliefs out of the classroom and I always got As on my pro gun/CCW speeches.

Posted: 9/30/2011 2:08:47 PM EDT

[#47]

I was a history major as an undergrad. My profs were a mixed bag. One guy was a card-carrying member of the Socialist Party (still friends with him - I think you'd disagree with him on issues but like him - he's written entertaining books on NASCAR, professional wrestling, and the Silver Shirts from the 1930s) but another was very right-wing. Dr. Rakowski taught political philosophy. He grew up in the Ukraine and told us stories of the Nazi occupation and "liberation" by the Soviets. He told us how Kruschev showed up at his house one day, when Kruschev I guess was nothing more than a local commie party leader, and asked Dr. Rakowski's dad to help reopen the local factory. He told us they thought his father was going to be killed and they had to coax him out of hiding in the rafters of their house. He told us about how, when he first emigrated to the US, he showed up at the Sikorsky factory to ask for a job (because in the old country, if you wanted a job you went to the boss and asked for one) and the secretary figured that since they were both Ukranian they must know each other and let him into Igor's office. He got the job. His experiences made him very conservative. One of the classes I took with him was one of Newt Gingrich's classes via video tape. The rest were unremarkable in their politics.

Posted: 9/30/2011 2:09:14 PM EDT

[#48]

Just to make it clear, I couldn't care less if the professor himself were left or right wing, so long as they could keep it out of the classroom.

Of course I'd prefer them being conservative, but so long as they are unbiased, it doesn't matter to me.

Posted: 9/30/2011 2:12:36 PM EDT

[#49]

Quoted:

I went to tech school instead of collage.

The instructors had to teach a spacific curriculum so i didn't have to put up with that liberal shit.

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Posted: 9/30/2011 2:21:46 PM EDT

[#50]

Had one Poly Sci professor (for an elective, I was a history major) that was ridiculously left, was sucking John Kerry's dick back when I had him for class. Anyways, as weird as he was, he and I would sort-of get along and have little right vs left sidebars in class, but I would keep quiet that I was in ROTC, didn't want to stir things up too bad. I was averaging an A- or B+ on all my assignments, so honestly pretty good for me at the time.

Eventually I had to wear my uniform to class because of a certain ROTC function, and the guy just lost his damn mind. We had our midterm that day, and he gave me a 40% on it, which based upon how heavily the test was weighted there was no chance of recovery. I confronted him about it, wouldn't work with me despite my otherwise good performance, and said I might as well quit because he wasn't going to pass me. I left right there, because I would have killed the fat fuck if I had stayed any longer.

When I was storming through the hall on my way out of the building, I ran into another ROTC buddy who was in the class with me. He looked pissed, which was abnormal because he was a really easy going guy. He just got the same news as me, except he was a 4.0 type, Poly Sci major. That asshole professor intentionally failed us because we were military. I ran it up the chain, did everything I could, even just put a shitty review of the guy on ratemyprofessor.com or whatever.

I hope he dies choking on some liberal dick in an alley somewhere on the USU campus.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Did you have a lot of left wing professors?

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