I often hear people say that Purdue In W. Lafayette Indiana is conservative as far as public universities go. Although it is to the left of me (I consider it very moderate) it certainly isn't the University of Wisconsin Madison or IU. Is this because it is a land grant college with agriculture and engineering? What other factors come into play? What other public universities have a conservative or moderate bent?
This is true of any state where there are two primary universities, with one the land grant college and the other the liberal arts:
Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Purdue, Mississippi State, Auburn, Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Utah State, Oregon State, Washington State.
I can't speak for the other places, but Utah State is certainly more conservative (in all respects) than Utah, as one might expect given that one is in Logan and the other is in Salt Lake City. The student body at Utah State is much more Mormon than that at Utah.