When an image of President Barack Obama was hung behind the front counter of Ernie Davis Dining Center in honor of Black History Month, some interpreted the framed poster —synonymous with Obama’s 2008 bid for presidency — as a political message.

‘While Obama is a figurehead for black history, his slogan ‘Change’ should not be brought into the conversation,’ said Zach Weiss, chairman of SU’s 30-member College Republicans, referring to the rallying point used throughout the president’s first campaign.

In the thick of GOP presidential primary season, the poster prompted an especially timely conversation about the political culture at Syracuse University. Students from both sides of the aisle and some political science professors agree the campus community tends to lean more toward the political left. Some owe SU’s liberal lean to the university’s geographic location, others to the nature of academia in general.

Weiss viewed the poster as an unnecessary political statement that indicates SU is ‘very much a left-leaning campus.’

Amy Snider, president of SU’s 45-person College Democrats, did not interpret the poster politically. Instead, she saw the poster as signifying that ‘we are no longer the America of Martin Luther King Jr.’

‘I would never think it inappropriate to hang a poster of the president of the United States up in a dining hall, up in a dorm room, up in a street corner, regardless of political affiliation,’ Snider said. ‘He is the president of the United States.’

Though Snider believes the campus leans slightly toward the left, the president of SU’s College Democrats said she feels the disparity is neither surprising nor overwhelming for a nondenominational university located in the traditionally liberal state of New York.

A 2011 Gallup poll ranked New York fifth on a list of the 10 most democratic states, receiving the ranking of a ‘solid democratic state.’

Snider has encountered professors that are vocal about their liberal or conservative stances, though she has never felt inhibited from free and open discussion. Instead, hearing from multiple perspectives has only bolstered her learning experience, she said.

Grant Reeher, a professor of political science, said students on campus do tend to lean more toward politically left ideology, resembling the political climate at universities with comparable demographics. In the last year and a half, 19 of 21 personal political contributions by SU faculty members were donated to politicians that identified as Democrats, according to data from opensecrets.org.

For the most part, Reeher said the discourse he has observed among students of different political mindsets has generally been civil. Beyond students, Reeher said he feels SU faculty comprises members who are more liberal than most, a trait that does not deviate from most large, private institutions in the Northeast, he said.

‘The faculty here at the university as a whole are more liberal than the average citizen,’ he said.

Generally speaking, Reeher said he believes academics tend to harbor more liberal viewpoints while those who enter fields such as business tend to have a more conservative ideology.

Gavan Duffy, associate professor of political science, emphasized that political affiliation is not considered or requested during the hiring process.

Regardless of political affiliation, Reeher said he believes most SU professors teach courses without political bias and from a nonpartisan perspective.

But for Weiss, he said he felt political bias has, at times, extended to the classroom. Teaching assistants have not always been hospitable to hearing multiple sides of an argument, Weiss said. Unlike professors, he said he feels assistants are less experienced with remaining neutral during in-class political discussions.

More recently, Weiss said he had an unsettling conversation with a professor about Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, who spoke at a discussion facilitated by the College Republicans last week.

During the course of the conversation, Weiss said the professor remarked that she dined with a like-minded conservative figure and stated, ‘He was lucky I just had a butter knife next to me.’

‘It was in a joking tone, but at the same time, you kind of want your teacher to be open to any sort of views, and it wasn’t a comforting thing to hear,’ Weiss said.

Members of the College Democrats and other community groups gathered outside Rove’s discussion Feb. 15 in protest of the Republican’s support of super PACs. Snider emphasized the protest was coordinated not to object Rove’s appearance on campus, but his political stance on the issue.

While some on the SU campus take strong political stance, others are largely politically unconcerned altogether. Colin Crowley, a junior political science and philosophy major and the College Democrats’ Central New York regional chair, said he believes the campus overall is politically apathetic.

‘Frankly, this campus leans in no direction at all in the sense that most people aren’t politically aware at all,’ he said in an email. ‘That said, of the students that know what’s going on, there is a decidedly liberal slant, especially on social issues like gay marriage.’

For those who are politically active on campus, such as members of the College Democrats and College Republicans, Crowley said the relationship between the two organizations allows for open discussion and disagreement.

‘I think the nature of a college campus is one of greater openness of communication than elsewhere,’ he said. ‘It may be more open here than anywhere else in American society.’

Margaret Thompson, an associate professor of history and political science, encourages students in her HST 341/PSC 329: ‘The Modern Presidency’ course to have an open dialogue. Early in the semester she polled them, asking whom they would vote for in the approaching presidential election. Thompson found students’ responses reflected the political climate of the SU campus as well as the American public at large. About 53 percent of her students responded with a vote in favor of Obama.

The poll is something Thompson has been doing for years. Thompson said she has not observed an overwhelming political lean in one direction or another, only a very marginal tendency for students to favor more liberal ideals.

Overall, however, Thompson believes college students are still grappling to put together their individual political identities and where they fall compared to their parents.

Said Thompson: ‘I think the majority of students here haven’t made up their mind.’

dbtruong@syr.edu 

Published on February 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Debbie: dbtruong@syr.edu | @debbietruong