Donna Shalala, the president of the University of Miami, attracted criticism in the national press based on her administration’s decision to reject the application of four female students who wanted to organize a conservative group on campus.
The University claimed, according to press reports, that the group was redundant.
..In founding the Network of enlightened Women (NeW) at the University of Virginia in 2004 and working with women across the country to start chapters, l have seen firsthand how colleges and universities—and members of the political left who often lead them—use their power to control and shape debate on college campuses.
And the administrators aren’t the only ones who can shut down voices they dislike; faculty and students are just as capable of shouting down their conservative peers.
Here are five ways that colleges and their community members keep conservative women’s voices quiet:
1. Build a Bureaucracy
Each school has its own rules on how to start student clubs. Like the University of Miami under Shalala, many schools have regulations that often work against conservative voices. For example, many schools require faculty sponsors to start a club. Sometimes one of the biggest challenges our chapters face is finding a faculty member who will sign-on to be the faculty sponsor.
With so many left-leaning professors—a 2005 study found that 72 percent of college faculty members are liberal—it is unlikely that many liberal groups suffer the same challenge. These rules make it more difficult for students to start chapters of organizations that don’t have broad support among faculty.
2. Operate Institutions Closed to Conservative Women
Read on and get angry!
