Most Leftist American Universities?

[indya]

This may be an inappropriate place to ask this, but I will be heading off to university next year, and I want to attend a place with like minded people. Do you know of any american universities which are VERY VERY liberal?

[MarxSchmarx]

There aren't very many, but there are rather lefty departments here and there. Your best bet is to go to a lefty department in a well-known university - so for example major in Economics at something like the following:
http://heterodoxnews.com/directory/undergraduate.htm

For entire schools, the following I guess would do.
http://www.peoplescollegeoflaw.edu/
There is also the institute of social ecology in vermont that offers degrees.

[QueeRiot]

What is your goal? What are you looking to pursue?

[MarxSchmarx]

Oh, I also forgot to add:

probably far more important than the predilections of tenured professors is the student activist scene.

The following are pretty notorious in this respect:
UC Santa Cruz
Rompolo (sp)
CUNY
CU Boulder
Evergreen State college
U Oregon/Oregon State
The New School

avoid the Ivies or its ilks (Stanford, Chicago, MIT, etc...), elite liberal arts schools. And most major public schools (with the aforementioend exceptions). Tech schools are also largely dead (Purdue, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M). And big private schools (USC, NYU, Boston etc...) are probably the worst in this respect. The other bad ones are commuter schools.

But if you are serious about being part of the left, you'll gain much, much more by working with a range of activists on different campaigns than you would from any textbook.

[RadioRaheem84]

Columbia is an ivy and has a fairly leftist population.

[Magón]

UC Santa Cruz

DATS MAH SKOOL MAN!!!! :thumbup: (Seriously, it is.)

[kahimikarie]

reed college

oberlin maybe

[MarxSchmarx]

Columbia is an ivy and has a fairly leftist population.

I actually included columbia in that list to start, and gave it some serious thought (I've marched with several columbia grads). The reason I decided against putting it on that list was that at the end of the day, was that face it, at Columbia you are surrounded by careerist harvard rejects. If you want to advance the leftist movement, go to the NYC meetings, but the Columbia specific movements aren't going anywhere. There TAs were denied unionization and it's just in general a lost cause.



UC Santa Cruz DATS MAH SKOOL MAN!!!! :thumbup: (Seriously, it is.)

As a banana slug you should write this comrade and let him know what the scene is like


reed college

oberlin maybe

No, no, and no. The wealthy liberal arts schools like the kind you mention only churn out ever more of the professoriat, at best. At worse they are a real bate and switch. If you are serious about a liberal arts education, then get a library card or go to St. John's College. These places are death, believe me after 4 years you will be delighted to work as an examiner at the Department of Motor Vehicles or pursue an even more pointless PhD.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Oh, I also forgot to add:

probably far more important than the predilections of tenured professors is the student activist scene.

The following are pretty notorious in this respect:
UC Santa Cruz
Rompolo (sp)
CUNY
CU Boulder
Evergreen State college
U Oregon/Oregon State
The New School

avoid the Ivies or its ilks (Stanford, Chicago, MIT, etc...), elite liberal arts schools. And most major public schools (with the aforementioend exceptions). Tech schools are also largely dead (Purdue, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M). And big private schools (USC, NYU, Boston etc...) are probably the worst in this respect. The other bad ones are commuter schools.

But if you are serious about being part of the left, you'll gain much, much more by working with a range of activists on different campaigns than you would from any textbook.

Can you please elaborate on the down points of each of MIT, Purdue, USC, NYU, and Boston?

You forgot to mention another potential positive: the University of Missouri - Kansas City (the Post-Keynesian hub).

[Magón]

First, here's a link to UCSC Home Page (http://www.ucsc.edu/index.html). So you can look into whatever it is you're interested in, and see what classes, etc. UCSC has to offer in your field of interest(s).

As for the vibe and place of the campus, it's pretty chill and relaxed. People are pretty lib, and by that I mean just Libertarians and such, but also the good sort. Though, there are some people that might seem cool and chill with your political mindset, but once you speak with them, they're very different from what you expected. As for any radical leftists, there's plenty of them too. I personally know like 6+ self proclaimed Anarchists, and a few Marxists of varying degrees too.

The professors are pretty cool to, but you've got to take it seriously (obviously) or they become serious needles in your side.

The plus side to also living in Santa Cruz is you're right there next to a nice sandy beach. :D (LOTS and LOTS of hot ladies roaming around. And I don't mean that in a weird way, they're just really hot here. :D)


EDIT: Also, Santa Cruz has a nice indie (free from the FCC guidelines and rules) radio station. In other words, a Pirate radio station called Free Radio Santa Cruz. They've been raided by the FCC like two or three times. So they're pretty legit when it comes to fighting the FCC regulations, etc. :D

[Apoi_Viitor]

Marlboro

[RadioRaheem84]

I figured it was all about Pace, CUNY, New School and UMass-Amherst.

How did everyone forget UMass-Amherst?

[jediknight36]

I went to community college, where the workers go to college, but no one was very interested in organizing. Most of us had full time jobs on top of full class loads. Just my .02

Posted using my ossim EVO 4G and Tapatalk.

[FreeFocus]

The formal education is largely unimportant for leftist politics. You should focus more on the community or communities that surround the university and whether or not there's ample opportunity to become involved in struggles, even local ones.

I'm in college right now and I still learn more outside of class than I do inside. Which is the way it should be, kinda. Invest in books yourself; don't leave your education primarily in the hands of others (professors). Seek knowledge yourself.

[The Douche]

My girlfriend's friend went to the new school for a little while, she said the people there were super snooty and it was hard to make friends.

I'm sure you would have an easier time if you were involved in some of the leftist shit there (she said I would probably find plenty of people to hang out with pretty quick), but personally I usually don't like most anarchists or communists.

[jediknight36]

Weird, but the reply I posted didn't show up.

Anyway, I went to community college, most people there were workers, and no one wanted to organize. I guess because we all had huge class loads on top of full time employment. Here, Its hard to organize workers. We are all afraid of getting fired.

[Raúl Duke]

My girlfriend's friend went to the new school for a little while, she said the people there were super snooty and it was hard to make friends.

I actually wanted to go there in the past...
:unsure:

[RadioRaheem84]

I actually included columbia in that list to start, and gave it some serious thought (I've marched with several columbia grads). The reason I decided against putting it on that list was that at the end of the day, was that face it, at Columbia you are surrounded by careerist harvard rejects. If you want to advance the leftist movement, go to the NYC meetings, but the Columbia specific movements aren't going anywhere. There TAs were denied unionization and it's just in general a lost cause.


True. I figured Penn would've been like Columbia in the least since it's in a major city and has a large international student population, unlike the more WASP-y Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale. Not true at all.

Ivies are like Chomsky said, boot camps for the future bourgeois.

[apawllo]

Just go wherever you want and get involved in the community; find out what struggles are taking place, as mentioned. If you're staying in the community where you're from people might take you a bit more seriously, seeing as how you should already know what's going on and have a connection to the local working class. That said, if you can go away to school and receive a "better" education, go for it. As far as campus organizing goes, it's fine for student related issues imo, but if you form a group of typically wealthy students and try to stick your nose in other people's business it can come off as though you're elitist or looking to put a feather in your cap.

[Iraultzaile Ezkerreko]

Just go wherever you want and get involved in the community; find out what struggles are taking place, as mentioned. If you're staying in the community where you're from people might take you a bit more seriously, seeing as how you should already know what's going on and have a connection to the local working class. That said, if you can go away to school and receive a "better" education, go for it. As far as campus organizing goes, it's fine for student related issues imo, but if you form a group of typically wealthy students and try to stick your nose in other people's business it can come off as though you're elitist or looking to put a feather in your cap.

Agreed, go where ever you want and just make sure to seek out the activist community there. I go to a very large public-school in Atlanta that is not normally associated with activism, but our students have been at the center of education activism in the state for the past year and started what is essentially our states first state-wide student union. It's all what you make of it. Every community is ripe in some respect for leftist activism, you have to find that communities needs and act to meet, help be the radicalizing force in your community, even - and especially - if it is not very radical to begin with.

[Kassad]

I wish Antioch College in Ohio was still open. It was a crazy radical university.

[Acostak3]

You forgot to mention another potential positive: the University of Missouri - Kansas City (the Post-Keynesian hub).[/QUOTE]That's where I hope to go.

I hear the University of Michigan is pretty lefty, but that's by non-communist American standards.

[MarxSchmarx]

Can you please elaborate on the down points of each of MIT, Purdue, USC, NYU, and Boston?

You forgot to mention another potential positive: the University of Missouri - Kansas City (the Post-Keynesian hub).

I think the UMKC is in the link of alternative econ departments.

As regards MIT and Purdue, I both are mostly a place that churns out academics and engineers - they have econ departments and tend to have people who go into quantitative finance and management, and so it is largely about the people you are surrounded by. Their careerist focuses I think are their real strengths as schools, but not if you want to grow as a leftist specifically

USC, NYU and Boston U are expensive but too poor (or more inclined to invest in fancier dorms) to offer much in the means of good financial aid and attract overwhelmingly upper-middle and upper class students who, while reasonably bright, are not terribly interested in shaking up the system. The faculty are OK (although I don't know much about USC) politically, but the students come almost uniformly from the bourgeoisie and the petite bourgeoisie, and aspire to continue in that vein. That has been my experience interacting with students from there almost uniformly. They are not diverse, and in my experience most people who go there are fine perpetuating the priviliges they enjoy. The ivies, prestigious public institutions, and places like stanford and Chicago have classes made up of students from a variety of backgrounds, including from outside north america and from poorer families, as well as rabble-rousers. And, to be sure, plenty of sires of the bourgeoisie.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Would it fair to say then, that USC, NYU, and Boston U are the big bastions of bourgeois liberalism/progressivism, as I suspected earlier? [As opposed to bastions of conservatism elsewhere]

[MarxSchmarx]

Would it fair to say then, that USC, NYU, and Boston U are the big bastions of bourgeois liberalism/progressivism, as I suspected earlier? [As opposed to bastions of conservatism elsewhere]

To be honest I am not sure - sorry. There are definitely a lot of "center-left" reformist types. Many are the children of attorneys, university professors and civil servants who tend to be left-leaning in America. But there are also a lot of out and out rightwing students at those schools from my experience from the upper class. For example USC is located in a working-class area of Los Angeles that has a lot of activism and lefty politics, but sticks out as a bourgeois enclave due to its substantially wealthier student body, and I've met students there who look down on their surrounding communities.

My guess would be given there locations (NYC, boston and Los Angeles) they are not quite "bastions" of reformism the way UT Austin, for example, is.

[BIG BROTHER]

Its cliche but UC Berkeley is a good option, except that besides meeting a lot of left groups. You will have to deal with a lot of hipsters. But on the plus side, a lot of good organizing is done there.

It was in UC Berkeley were the October 16th Defend Education Conference that called for the State-Wide(and later national) call for a Strike and Day of action against the budget cuts, was organized and hosted.

UC Santa Cruz also has a pretty nice lefty scene, plus is one of the few campus were REAL strikes happen because the campus only has two entrances which can be easly blocked :thumbup1: