Conservatives begin to infiltrate the left's last redoubt.

opinionjournal.com ^ | Friday, January 14, 2005 | BRIAN C. ANDERSON

[crushelits]

Right on Campus

Throughout 2003 and into 2004, a surge of protests roiled American campuses. You probably think the kids were agitating against war in Iraq, right? Well, no. Students at UCLA, Michigan and many other schools were sponsoring bake sales to protest . . . affirmative action. For white students and faculty, a cookie cost (depending on the school) $1; blacks and Hispanics could buy one for a lot less.

The principle, the protesters observed, was just that governing university admission practices: rewarding people differently based on race. Indignant school officials charged the bake-sale organizers with "creating a hostile climate" for minority students, oblivious to the incoherence of their position. On what grounds could they favor race preferences in one area (admissions) and condemn them in the other (selling cookies) as racist? Several schools banned the sales, on flimsy pretexts, such as the organizers' lack of school food permits.

The protests shocked the mainstream press, but to close observers of America's college scene lately they came as no surprise. For decades, conservative critics have bemoaned academe's monolithically liberal culture. Parents, critics note, spend fortunes to send their kids to top colleges, and then watch helplessly as the schools cram them with a diet of politically correct leftism often wholly opposed to mom and dad's own values.

But the left's long dominion over the university--the last place on earth that lefty power would break up, conservatives believed--is showing its first signs of weakening. The change isn't coming from the schools' faculty lounges and administrative offices, of course. It's coming from self-organizing right-of-center students and several innovative outside groups working to bypass the academy's elite gatekeepers.

[NeilGus]

Great article but long. My favorite line is:

"Excluding one great economics professor, I learned more from listening to Rush Limbaugh every day than from all the NYU professors I've had," says Katherine Ernst, not really joking.

[handy old one]

How much did stupid students pay? Were they charged more because they were stupid, and did not know better or because they are stupid?

[GenXFreedomFighter]

I wish we'd thought of this when I was in college! Then again, I probably wouldn't have found time to participate.

[jocon307]

Great article, it is long, but read the whole thing. It really gives one hope.

I'm proud to say my daughter is one of these young conservatives.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

Is the trend to the right due to a ral change of viewpoint, or because college students are traditionally anti-establishment? I wonder.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I wouldn't say that conservative students are beginning to infiltrate campuses. I wrote for The Michigan Review at the University of Michigan in the mid-80s, which was one of dozens of such magazines, The Dartmouth Review being the most famous.

Rather, I think some critical mass has been reached, where the activism of non-leftist students is about to change the cultures on campus.

The infiltration began 20-25 years ago. This is the uprising.

[JennysCool]

You hit a very good point. I've been saying for a long time that the stereotypes have switched. It's the Liberals that are now the entrenched, humorless, totalitarian monolith. It's the Conservatives that are fighting for life and liberty; attempting the pursuit of happiness even while thwarted by the Liberal prigs.

[Millicent_Hornswaggle]

already posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1320697/posts

[EQAndyBuzz]

"How much did stupid students pay? Were they charged more because they were stupid, and did not know better or because they are stupid?"

For Stupid students(and lib teachers) the cookies were free.

[phillyfanatic]

Heard someone on TalkRadio from Penn and even there , some conservative clubs, newspapers were being founded and maintained. From over 20-30 years ago, conservative clubs and papers were rare. The data today says now there are over 1,000 conservative clubs and many more campus conservative and even Republican papers. Even Christians are being allowed on campuses in greater number. Still, as a college teacher, I can assure posters, unfortunately, that the universities are mostly liberal, extreme leftist in both teacher and student orientation. Extreme clubs of Muslims, black panther-types exist on many campuses all in the name of multicultural tolerance. Nowadays, as if posters here didn't know, liberals are the biggest bigots!

[knews_hound]

Bump

[The_Eaglet]

Thanks for posting this.

[handy old one]

They ask to be payed to eat them!