U-M: Liberal, But Not Too Liberal

Over the next four years, your supple minds will experience much in fair Ann Arbor. Throughout this time, you will see the Review critique much of our glorious Administration, student government leaders, and activist groups. For those of you of the conservative or classical liberal persuasion, such criticism may result in a mild persecution complex: "Omigod, the Liberals are out to get me! Help!" Accordingly, let us briefly elaborate that, while the political climate in Michigan is hardly welcoming, it could be far worse. For although Michigan may lean strongly to the Left, unlike other universities it does not mercilessly crush dissent.

To better convey this idea, here are but a few recent examples of Leftist outrages that have spared Ann Arbor:

1. The Feminist Majority at Ohio State: following publication of a cartoon these lovely ladies deemed offensive (it satirized the Womens' Studies department), they rampaged through campus, stealing 15,000 copies of the newspaper that published the cartoon. One of them had the audacity to claim, "It's within my First Amendment rights to steal." Under pressure, the newspaper fired the cartoonist.

2. Peter Singer: Recently hired as Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. Nicknamed "Professor Death," he supports the killing of disabled people, arguing that they are inferior to dogs, pigs and monkeys.

3. PC Run Amok: At Arizona State University, a drama professor was fired for teaching Shakespeare. At the University of Pennsylvania, a student was charged with racial harassment after calling a group of loud African-American partiers "water buffaloes" for keeping him up at two in the morning. The charges were eventually dropped when the University realized that the water buffalo is native to Asia, not Africa. At Antioch College, students must get verbal approval before each sexual advance: "Can I hold your hand?" "Can I nibble your ear?" etc.

4. Other universities have instituted speech codes, which limit the rights of students to freely speak their minds. The University of Michigan did have a short-lived speech code a few years back, but it was soon ruled unconstitutional.

Even the Great Offenders here on campus pale in comparison to their brethren elsewhere. For instance, the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA), our illustrious student government, confiscates $5.69 from each student per semester to disperse to an array of student groups, many of them extremely radical. However, their opposite numbers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison take more than 20 times that amount for the same nefarious purposes. And at least MSA conducts their mischief out of the goodness of their hearts. At most other campuses, student government officials are monetarily rewarded for their misconduct.

Even the much maligned Daily staffers manage to form coherent sentences most of the time, a significant improvement over your average daily student newspaper.

In fact, in some areas, Ann Arbor actually serves as a classical liberal paradise. Where else do the police come out in force to defend people's rights to run nekkid in the street? Where else do a thousand people sit down to smoke pot, and not get swarmed by an armada defending other people's values? Where else, in one week, can there be candlelight vigils for abortion rights, an unborn child's rights, bombing Serbia, not bombing Serbia, Polish communists, and Gweneth Paltrow's Oscar victory? For the most part, freedom of expression is honored on campus, and the rights of conservatives/libertarians are defended.

This is not to say Ann Arbor constitutes either a conservative or a libertarian Utopia; far from it. As discussed elsewhere in this issue, U-M sometimes terrorizes its student body via a clearly unconstitutional Code of Student Conduct. You will encounter some professors who profess views slightly to the left of Leon Trotksy. Some of them may even penalize those who speak their mind. And of course, if you falter from the dotted ideological line, expect to win the scorn of activists, dorm mates, and class colleagues. Still, it could be worse. Much worse. MR

This article was published in the New Student Issue of The Michigan Review (Volume 18, Number 1).
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