Conservative Public Universities

[RI]

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.

WSU's more conservative that UW, but it's still plenty liberal.

None of Washington's public universities are particularly conservative (Gonzaga and Walla Walla are both conservative, but they're private), though I'd guess CWU is probably the most conservative? (Cheney's more conservative than Ellensburg or Pullman, but that's because more than half the professors and students live in Spokane, as any reasonable person who could afford it would)

From most liberal to conservative, I'd rank them as:

1. Evergreen
2. WWU
3. UW
4. EWU
5. WSU
6. CWU

[RI]

^

I was going to complain that the Cheney precincts with EWU in them are both way less liberal than the WSU and CWU precincts, but I ran some numbers first.  Both of the precincts with EWU in them were only 22% under 30 years old among 2012 voters.  It's looking like 250-400 student votes citywide.  Even considering it has a lot of commuters (I hear), that's really low versus the student population, so I have no idea how they voted.  Why so apathetic?  I'm also curious why you think it's more liberal than WSU and CWU.

I also wouldn't say Gonzaga is conservative.  Gonzaga's precinct is noticeably more liberal than the surrounding areas, especially on social issues, and students are a big chunk of the vote there.  I'd say the only conservative-leaning schools in the state are probably Northwest University and Whitworth (not SPU, contrary to popular perception).

I'm going off my personal experience, which I admit is probably biased. I attended EWU for two years, have now been at WSU for two-plus years; my wife attended Gonzaga for two years, Walla Walla for two years (MSW); and have family that's attended CWU.

Here's the thing about EWU: not only are there a lot of commuters (there are only four or five apartment complexes in the town and two are brand new whereas Pullman has dozens), but the school also has a much higher proportion of international students and minorities in general than the other universities I've been to. If I had to guess, I'd say most students who attend EWU don't register to vote in Cheney, either because they live in Spokane, aren't citizens, or keep their registration at their home. I personally never registered to vote in Cheney. With regard to living arrangements, EWU is almost more like a very large community college than a traditional university.

EWU is neither a particularly religious nor STEM-driven school. It's easily more liberal in every way that Gonzaga from my experience. Gonzaga is equal parts rich-kid trust funders and poor white Catholics (not many minorities there). There isn't much of an in-between. They have a very active university ministry program, lots of highly attended mass times, and virtually no fraternities/sororities, whereas EWU and especially WSU have lots of Greek presence. Most Gonzaga students live on-campus, I believe, as the university has lots of really nice and new housing accommodations. Part of that is also that the school is bordered by some really poor, slummy neighborhoods, especially to the north. Logan neighborhood is not a place you want to walk at night if you can help it.

I've never been to Whitworth, so I can't attest to that one.

Walla Walla U is an SDA theocracy that doesn't serve meat and is closed on Saturdays for Sabbath. The whole town is like a SDA version of Utah. It's kinda interesting, actually, but that's easily one of the more conservative universities in the state. Then there's Whitman just a few miles east, which is east coast rich-kid liberal arts-only. Makes for an interesting mix in the Walla Walla area.

WSU is an ag school, but it's becoming less and less of one every year proportionally. You can easily drive through campus and never see anything related to their ag/animal programs. They have lots of international students as well, but they're much more heavily east and south Asian whereas EWU is more diverse. The school has a large numbers of frats and even has a couple bars on campus. I rank WSU as more conservative than EWU due to the fact that it still does have that ag factor which EWU does not, plus that WSU has easily the highest (among the major universities, anyway) concentration of Mormons in the state.

I have the least experience with CWU of any of them, honestly; I've only visited twice. My perception is that CWU's a bit like a smaller WSU with more emphasis on engineering than ag. They have feeder programs for Boeing in aviation and aeronautics-related engineering (UW has all the big AE programs, whereas CWU trains for less-technical, more-trade-related positions). However, they do have a few artsy programs, so maybe I'm wrong about them.

[RI]

Alcon, you don't have to agree with me. I'm just stating my impressions, which as I said before may be biased. I understand that the plural of anecdote is not data, but I do think things are more complicated than just looking at precinct voting numbers.