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Is getting harassed by other students evidence of an effective college education? How about getting indoctrinated by professors? Or slandered on social media?
No? None of these? That would put you at odds with an Atlantic essay published Monday that attempts to frame experiences like these as examples, according to its title, of “How Liberal College Campuses Benefit Conservative Students.”
The essay was written by Lauren Wright, who teaches at Princeton. She argues that conservatives at predominantly liberal colleges get “exposure to different perspectives, regular practice building and defending coherent arguments, [and] intellectual challenges that spur creativity and growth.” Wright says these are benefits that liberal students have been “robbed” of. And she says that right-wing critics of these schools are missing something: that it is conservatives, not liberals, who reap “what higher education has long claimed to offer.”
As a right-of-center undergraduate at Columbia, I take Wright’s point. I have certainly derived some benefit from living and learning on a campus where vanishingly few students identify as conservative. I have developed “thick skin” and emerged “more resilient”—two of the benefits cited by Wright. But that doesn’t make up for facing a hostile environment on campus because of my mainstream political beliefs.
For reporting on Columbia’s anti-Israel protests and the occupation of Hamilton Hall for the Columbia Sundial and The Free Press, other students, including many in student government, slandered me on social media. Others yelled at me on the street. One particularly charming Columbian screamed “Fuck you” and gave me the finger. For the most part, I have been able to shut all this out and remain focused on my reporting. But these experiences don’t feel like an “educational advantage.”
When Columbia professors attempt to indoctrinate and radicalize students in support of Palestinian extremism, it’s inevitable that pro-Israel students will feel “challenged” in class discussions and develop valuable argumentation skills. That does not mean we should applaud these professors for their intellectual beneficence.
Wright argues that it’d be a mistake for conservatives to abandon elite colleges. I agree. But the intolerance conservative students like me are forced to endure is nothing to celebrate.
Jonas Du is an intern at The Free Press. Read his report on how protesters at Columbia had their criminal charges dropped. Follow him on X @jonasydu.
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