I'm glad I studied engineering, and then computer science, where the professors' personal opinions on a wide variety of subject were not something they generally shared with us or imposed on us. Many were probably conservative, some probably liberal, but it was not something that ever came up in class.
I had no idea what to political beliefs of my main grad school professor were until I ran into him many years later at the Boortz/Hannity get out the Republican vote road show in late 2004.
They should'nt come up in a philosophy or sociology class, either. During my college days, I had great professors that I'm pretty darned sure were liberal, but could not be absolutely certain about that, either. And I was never punished for speaking my opinion, which was conservative then. I also had to sit through some classes where the professors were flat out lefty loons that made no bones about that, but still was not punished for expressing my conservative opinions.
The good ones keep you in doubt and the honest ones that have even a shred of intellectual integrity will give you credit where it is due. I had a comment on a paper that read (verbatim):
"I see you have a fanatical bent for individual rights, despite the fact that we have shown this semester of how damaging they can be to the community and the individual themselves. Oh well, at least you do write well and present your point of view in a logical, concise manner, with good factual support for your conclusions and opinions."
One of the dammedest things I've ever read. I got an A on the paper, too.
Many were probably conservative, some probably liberal, but it was not something that ever came up in class.
And it shouldn't. Good teachers don't use their position to express their personal beliefs. Teachers not Preachers!
I can provide a bit of encouragement when it comes to conservatives and social work: my husband, a state employee who trains social workers (he's got an MSW/SSW himself), is in the final stages of becoming a professor of Social Work for a local Free Methodist college.
Social work used to be a form of Christian charity and outreach, but since the feds took it over en masse it's been stripped of anything smacking of Christianity.
There are efforts by Christian schools to train more social workers but its an uphill battle.
The ironic thing is that the student is studying to become a social worker. Yet the good Professor could not see past his own personal bias/agenda, and abused the power of his position. I studied science in college too, and found that the advocacy type professors were always in the so-called "social sciences."