Silencing the right

Recently The Portland Spectator, PSU’s conservative magazine, printed a request in large font on the magazine’s back cover: “Stop Killing Trees.” The request was a response to numerous stacks of the magazine disappearing from newsstands or ending up in trash cans seemingly at the hands of disgruntled students angry at the message the magazine promotes.

Some conservative students, such as Cameron Turner, believe the disappearing Spectators are an example of a growing liberal bias on the Portland State campus.

Turner, senior editor for The Portland Spectator and former member of the student senate, said that there has been an increasing number of Spectators thrown away recently, sometimes hours after they are put on the stands. Turner said part of this “tremendous influx” of discarded magazines is because of the sensational nature of a few of their recent covers.

“We noticed that when we print a mundane cover people don’t really want to read it and when it’s more controversial the more it gets thrown away,” Turner said.

The Spectator’s June issue features the headline “Illegal Immigrants ARE Terrorists,” printed in large white font over a plain black background. This issue, according to Turner, has been thrown away more than any other.

Aside from the Spectator, many students perceive a general liberal majority at PSU that makes conservative students unwelcome. Turner said that the campus is run on liberal ideology, including the idea of political correctness.

“You can’t say what you want to say by running into some PC term,” he said. “If you want to criticize multiculturalism or criticize immigration you get called a racist. When you run into someone who calls you racist because you criticize a policy issue you can’t win.”

Turner said a professor once expressed a concern about Turner using Fox News as a source in a paper. Additionally, in a health sciences class, he said his professor abandoned the subject of the class routinely to speak negatively about the Bush administration’s policies. Turner said he wishes that professors would use their platform to express all sides of a subject and not just their own opinions.

“It’s a breeding ground for liberal ideology,” he said. “If you know your teacher feels one way you’re going to feel hesitant to contradict them.”

Josh Gross, a self-described far-left liberal and editor of the leftist PSU paper The Rearguard, said that despite these claims, he believes there is no liberal bias on campus.

“As strange as this is going to sound, I don’t believe there is a liberal bias on campus,” he said. “I believe there is a perception of a liberal bias on campus.”

Gross said he believes the campus has a conservative majority, but that conservatives on campus are just not as active as the liberals.

“Conservative students are less active, they don’t really care that much,” he said.

Spectator Editor in Chief Crystal Rea said that the vocal liberal attitude on campus makes it hard for conservative students to express their opinions.

“It’s almost scary to voice your opinion as a conservative,” she said.

Rea, a senior, said that it was not until she became a junior and found a core group of conservative friends that she was able to openly express herself on campus. She said that she has had a few instances where students who were initially pleasant toward her discovered she works for the Spectator and became malicious.

“People truly don’t accept you as a person because of what you believe,” she said.

A big concern for both Turner and Rea is the bias they said they feel in the classroom. Rea said a friend received a poor grade in her geology class because she believed her conservative-themed paper about conservation was at odds with her professor’s liberal ideology.

Besides verbal abuse from a small group of vocal liberals and questionable teaching strategies, both Turner and Rea said they have difficulty identifying exactly how the liberal bias manifests itself on campus.

“You’ve got a bunch of people that claim there’s a bias, but it’s hard to pinpoint any concrete examples,” Turner said.

Rea also believes, along with Gross, that liberal students are responsible for most of the political action on campus, including protests and organizing student meetings.

“Generally my friends who are conservative will not argue for what they believe in,” she said, “but my friends who are liberals will fight to the death for what they believe in.”

Gross said the perception of a bias also comes because of the subject matter taught at PSU, which he said falls more in line with the social sciences and liberal arts.

“It’s simply a matter of subject matter,” he said. “The idea of college is to challenge your ideas and shape your perceptions. You choose to come to this school and now you’re asking not to be taught? I’d say the same thing to liberals who choose to take conservative subjects. Don’t take it if it’s just going to upset you.”

Amanda Crawford, co-chair of PSU College Democrats and vice president of the Oregon Federation of College Democrats, said conservatives should look at the Republican-controlled government and ask themselves if they have a bias. Crawford questioned why a majority of liberals on campus would be different than a Republican-controlled Congress.

Turner said having Republican-controlled national politics has caused problems.

“If the culture is slanted in one direction, you can’t help but be affected by that,” he said. “When one party has complete dominance you have to wonder if they are slacking off a bit. I think Republicans have gotten arrogant. It goes both ways. I’m a fair guy.”

Crawford said she also understands that conservatives desire to be cautious with their viewpoints, but hopes it will not stop communication. She said communication has been lacking recently between the liberals and conservatives on campus.

“I understand their fear, but I would hope that they would know there’s no need to be cautious,” she said.

“[Liberal bias] is there. I don’t know how much it’s manifested, but it is there,” Turner said. “I have no solid proof. It’s not a scientific study.”