As a political science major here at Boston University, I felt compelled to respond to Scott Brooks’ Nov. 21, column, ‘BU’s political science department tilts students to the left’ (pg. 11). Although I am not disputing Mr. Brooks’ claim that the political science department contains such avowed leftists as Howard Zinn and the environmentalist Betty Zisk, I doubt whether he has ever taken a political science course in his life.
Brooks asserts that ‘the classroom poses the biggest threat to student conservatives’ who are ‘generally not inclined to inject their own views into class discussion.’ Political science, aside from being a mere exchange of views on contemporary issues, centers around an analytical study of different institutions (such as Congress, the judiciary and the media), how they operate and their impact on society at large.
Having taken a total of 10 political science courses thus far at BU, I can testify that when discussion does focus on contemporary matters, classroom debate is often lively and argumentative, with students expressing a plethora of different views and ideas on issues ranging from affirmative action to federalism. Moreover, most professors in the political science department are apt to keep their own political leanings to themselves while at the same time displaying respect for student opinion.
Mr. Brooks seems to think political science students, and for that matter all social science majors, are mere zombies under the hypnotic spell of biased professors. What he fails to recognize is that while professors can provide intelligence and guidance on a particular subject, most students arrive at their own political persuasion through a personal choice on how they feel about certain issues. If that happens to be a more ‘liberal’ opinion, so be it.
It is sad that Mr. Brooks laments the lack of a more ‘balanced’ student body. After all, it was the ‘Radical Republicans’ of the 38th congress who led the fight to pass the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery and the left-leaning ‘New Deal’ Democrats of the 1930s that hastened the end of the Great Depression. Try taking a political science course this spring, Mr. Brooks maybe then you will see that unwavering beliefs are an advantageous characteristic of universities and United States politics.
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