Political families


photo by Amani Canada

Many families have the same worries when they go to visit their first-year student “” that their child has been brainwashed by the progressive professors, students and environment. They fear that their child has rejected the path on which they have been raised on and instead have turned from God and are debating on whether to be a Trotskyist or a Stalinist or that their student is on the local anti-fascist chapter hit list.

While this is a valid fear to have at some colleges, for the most part this stereotype comes from the Californian public university system. Trinity works a little differently than those schools.

Trinity is located in a very liberal environment “” probably one of the most liberal in the state. Hillary Clinton won our precinct with 78% of the vote. However, it is still a very tolerant campus for the most part. In the midst of the left’s current doctrinal split over free speech and how free it should be, most of our professors are open to hearing different viewpoints, contrasting with the surreal quiet of the echo chamber of other liberal campuses. Trinity professors pride themselves ensuring that both sides of the story are heard, allowing debate on contentious issues.

This cuts both ways: liberal students are not required to take up conservative dogma and conservatives are not required to adopt liberal dogma. You are free to be yourself and chose what to believe “” the way college should ideally be.

Trinity left-wingers, for the most part, are still more left of center than far left. Most people on this campus are open-minded when it comes to many different topics “”  of course, there is still the occasional person who has difficulty listening to ideas they don’t agree with.

Personally, as the standard-bearer of conservative values on this campus, I have had a mixed bag when it comes to being tolerated on campus. However, what I have experienced is nothing compared to the doxing, threats and physical violence that conservatives on other college campuses have experienced and endured due to their ideas and beliefs. My professors, at least, have tolerated me and often times embraced having more than one kind of ideas in the classroom.

Occasionally there have been messages left on my brother’s door that could be considered unsettling. A sticky note with the phrase “Down with the capitalist dogs” was left on his door in our first year by a wannabe Marxist. Other times, people decided to return fliers that were passed out informing people of Dinesh D’Souza’s upcoming appearance on campus. The Trinity administration replied admirably to the D’Souza situation. Most colleges would have responded by demanding to know why the students didn’t return all of the fliers instead of just some of them. Instead, the administration checked in on us and made sure we were doing all right.

Yes, sending your child away to college can be a very scary experience. However, please rest assured that nothing that bad will happen at Trinity because of students’ political beliefs. Yes, some people will chose to not be friends with them because they don’t agree with their political stances, but if someone won’t be friends with you because of your political beliefs, then you probably don’t want them as friends anyway. The professors will respect your child and you have very little to fear here. Trinity, as you will come to learn, is a little different than the rest.