[Mb-civic] Hooray for the student right - Randi Powell - The Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Hooray for the student right

By Randi Powell  |  August 30, 2005

DURING THE 1980s, Ronald Reagan ushered in a new era of American 
conservatism that few can forget. But I don't remember one thing about 
it. Honestly, the first president who actually meant anything to me, 
besides being a fact in a book, was Bill Clinton. Like most of today's 
college students who were born during the Reagan administration, I grew 
up with the liberalism of the 1990s. So it only makes sense that those 
liberal values and ideas are considered ''normal" for most of my generation.

Indeed, there was a time when any twentysomething outside the realm of 
the left was considered an oddity and was ostracized for her political 
stance, particularly here in the Northeast. Consequently young 
conservatives tended to hide their opinions and go along, albeit 
silently, with the liberal stampede of their peers.

But with the rightward political tone of the country, many young 
conservatives finally feel safe to come out of the closet. And as 
students flock to campuses around Boston for a new year, they are coming 
out in droves.

Many collegians, both liberal and conservative, have sat through 
lectures where professors beat the drum of liberalism. As a college 
student who considers herself liberal, I've even noticed that some 
professors practice indoctrination instead of scholarship. With 
left-wing professors monopolizing many university campuses and with 
tenure making them a stationary face in the classroom, the changing 
student body has had little variety to choose from and ultimately 
nowhere to go.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/30/hooray_for_the_student_right/
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