Survey claims university exhibits liberal tendencies

On the political spectrum of conservative to liberal, many have long considered this university to favor the left.

Although professors and student leaders maintain the university has no political leanings, a recent survey of 100 universities in the United States found otherwise.

The report, released this summer by CampusReform.org — a conservative and libertarian student organization — highlights various aspects of the university that seem to support the notion this university is left of center. The study cited the large number of liberal student groups at the university, the high percentage of faculty and staff donations to the Democratic Party in recent elections and the number of classes recommended by the Office of Sustainability for discussing environmental issues.

Researchers examined online data and policies from each university included in the study, as well as campaign finance numbers from The Huffington Post to dissect how donations were made from university personnel, said CampusReform.org spokeswoman Abby Alger.

At this university, the report found that of the 25 student groups it classified as political, only five were conservative. The 20 groups classified as liberal included the College Democrats, UMD for Clean Energy, Feminism Without Borders and Pride Alliance. The groups deemed conservative included the College Republicans and Terps for Life, an anti-abortion student group.

But conservative student leaders said the small number of right-wing groups at the university doesn't reflect the range of their influence.

"Student-wise, I don't think the number of clubs is indicative of conservative students on campus," said Sarah Martin, president of the university's chapter of the College Republicans.

Martin has big plans for expanding the conservative student base this semester: She plans to start a conservative group tied to the national organization Students for Liberty and continue her leadership at The Terrapin Times, a university newspaper mainly geared toward a conservative audience, she said.

CampusReform.org listed the university's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as among the liberal student groups, but the organization's leaders disagreed with the assessment.

"I understand why they put us under liberal, but I don't think it is necessarily correct," said Malcolm Whitfield, the group's president.

While student leaders involved in the student groups examined by the survey largely took issue with the report, many casual observers supported the notion that this university is indeed a liberal one.

"Maryland is very liberal," junior government and politics major Jamie Hinton said. "A majority of my professors make us read books from liberal authors. ... It's a normal thing, I'm used to it. One of my teachers recently made an anti-Bush joke."

Senior mechanical engineering major Jamison Smith also agreed the university is more liberal because it "allows people to voice their opinions."

Some professors doubted the accuracy of the report.

"I find it odd that groups like environmental groups or civil rights groups are considered to be liberal groups as opposed to being conservative groups," said Erik Lichtenberg, a professor in the agriculture college. Lichtenberg teaches one of the courses recommended by the Office of Sustainability, which, according to CampusReform.org, follows a political agenda.

Faculty and staff were also featured in terms of political campaign contributions — the organization states that in the 2008 presidential election, 90 percent of contributing university faculty and staff donated to Democrats.

Lichtenberg said he wasn't surprised when he looked at the data.

"I can't see anyone who is committed to intellectual life and committed to reasonable approaches to policy being attracted to what the Republican Party is offering these days," Lichtenberg said.

But Lichtenberg and Whitfield both said the report was greatly flawed in differentiating between both conservatism and liberalism and the left and right of the political spectrum — the concepts were seemingly treated interchangeably when their meanings differ greatly, they said.

"Bill Clinton was more conservative in domestic policy than Richard Nixon, and I don't see Barack Obama being a lot more leftist than that," said Lichtenberg, who worked for the White House under former President Bill Clinton on the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

Alger agreed with the ambiguous nature of the terms "liberal" and "conservative," and noted that these terms limit the ability of the survey to paint an honest picture of the university.

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