It's Alright for the Right

This semester has seen a lot of talk about the presence of conservative students on campus. By all accounts, the majority of students at Tufts lean to the left, but there is a sizable, vocal conservative minority. As a student who identifies as fairly liberal, I do, for the most part, appreciate the presence of that minority on campus. However, I do not, by any means, feel bad for conservative students at Tufts.

I don't think most conservative students here desire my sympathy or pity in any way. However, there are some conservatives on campus who think that the best way to increase their standing on campus is by making people feel bad for their plight. But although this campus isn't exactly a hotbed of conservatism, life as a conservative on campus really is quite bearable.

Conservatives at Tufts have not consistently been discriminated against. Many raise the issue of a pro-Bush sign being defaced on a student's door as a bias incident. However, political ideology is not a protected class in regards to bias incidents. According to The Pachyderm, the protected classes in terms of bias are race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, ethnic or national origin, and age. Disagreeing with, or even putting down, someone's political ideology is allowable on campus. And it happens all the time, to conservatives and liberals alike.

In fact, one of the strengths of the conservative students on this campus is only possible because of this ability to put down other's ideological beliefs. This strength is The Primary Source. In my mind, the Source is one of the most well-written, thought-provoking, and humorous publications on campus. While that can be debated, no one can debate how widely read and discussed the Source is. This shows that Tufts students are at least willing to consider the conservative viewpoint on a regular basis, and show some respect for it.

The Source provides an outlet for students with conservative views to express themselves in a Tufts Community Union (TCU)-funded setting that is distributed throughout campus. If Tufts was so rabidly anti-conservative, this would not be the case. Consistently, conservative students have been elected by the student body to leadership positions in student government that control all of student life. In my time at Tufts, prominent conservative students have been elected to the Committee on Student Life, the TCU Judiciary (TCUJ), the TCU Senate, and even to leadership positions within the Senate. If Tufts students really did discriminate against conservatives, they would not be voting for them.

If one looks objectively at the way groups like the TCUJ has treated student groups on campus, it is clear that conservatives are treated no worse, if not better, than liberal students. As the Democratic presidential primaries near, numerous student groups have formed supporting individual campaigns. However, the TCUJ has ruled that they cannot be recognized as individual student organizations and must be part of the umbrella Tufts Democrats. This forces competing organizations to compete further over the tiny budget allotted to the Tufts Democrats.

The TCUJ, however, had no problem approving the Tufts Right to Arms (TRA) group, which is much more closely aligned with the goals of the Tufts Republicans than many of the Democratic candidates are with the "New Democrat"-dominated Tufts Democrats.

TRA says it is more than a political group, but as its title indicates, its primary mission is to preserve the right to arms, a platform of the national Republican Party. The TCUJ also took an ideological stand by recognizing TRA, saying yes, the student activity fee can be used to help people shoot guns and learn to shoot guns; a decision I for one feel uncomfortable with.

There is actually a stronger anti-left sentiment on this campus than an anti-conservative one. Yes, most Tufts students are left of center, but not that far left. As a high school history teacher once told me, "Liberals are a radical's worst nightmare." Radical Jumbos are mocked and looked down upon by moderates just as much as conservative students are, if not more so. And in terms of discrimination, I do not recall a conservative student ever losing a scholarship, a la Liz Monnin and last year's TUAA Senior Awards.

I have no problem with the conservative presence on Tufts' campus. But I do have a problem when conservative students whine about how terrible their lives are here. Tufts has never claimed to be a bastion of the right, and students know that when they first come here. To compare bias against political ideology and sexual orientation is cheap and inappropriate, and does absolutely nothing to advance the position of conservatives on campus. I look forward to worthwhile debates on political issues that matter to students on both the right and the left. However, petty attacks against groups like Tufts Transgendered Lesbian Gay Bisexual Coalition (TTLGBC) for responding to bias incidents are worthless in constructing an open campus dialogue.

Adam Pulver is a junior majoring in Political Science and Community Health. He can be reached at pulver@tuftsdaily.com.