Relative to other universities, we downright purple.

Washington Post: The most liberal universities in the United States

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/14/the-most-liberal-universities-in-america/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

I imagine Berkeley faculty are either too libertarian or too left-wing to be part of either major party.

I notice the schools with a strong, large technology/science emphasis are further down the list -- MIT, Cal, Stanfurd, Cal Tech (along with other UCs). You would assume that schools that have a stronger emphasis on the liberal arts would tend to be liberal. I don't know that science/quants folks would be more inclined to the right side of the political spectrum -- perhaps they scatter more evenly across it -- so maybe a larger dose of this population moderates the researchers' ratio.

edit
Johns Hopkins is definitely an outlier, but Carnegie Mellon builds into my hypothesis.

Surprised that USC is ranked so high above us.

This is crazy. Their ranking appears to be based on ONE statistic. And we're supposed to conclude from those numbers that USC is 1.9x as liberal as Cal?

Yeah but when somebody develops an app to determine the most liberal campus, it will be someone from Cal

This survey is worthless - they could be registered as Peace and Freedom etc. or simply didn't want to be identified and declined to state their party affiliation to avoid controversy or labeling.More meaningful is a survey asking who they voted for in each of the last several elections.

Definitely makes me feel better about being an alum.

I remember touring Brown before deciding on Cal and thinking "this place is way too soft".

paulonosul;842745414 said:

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Definitely makes me feel better about being an alum.

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+1

Very unsurprising journalism and history exclusively dems. Writers of the stories of our present and past. Rings true to me.

CAL6371;842745412 said:

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This survey is worthless

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Talk about cherry picking data to produce a result... from the article: "We looked up 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic and 314 Republican..."

In other words, there was no data for about half of their sample - but heck, let's draw conclusions anyway! It is possible (not probable) that there are more Republicans than Dems if you want to assume that R's in academia are more likely to Decline to State. And then there is the choice of fields. Why not choose Business? I have seen bad studies but this is beyond bad.

PalyBear;842745383 said:

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Relative to other universities, we downright purple.

Washington Post: The most liberal universities in the United States

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/14/the-most-liberal-universities-in-america/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

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At cal I was an engineer, in a fraternity, and in rotc. Decidedly a conservative mix.

The 60s 'grads' living around the campus are certainly liberal, but the student body is about the same as other big publics. Liberal, but not crazy

SadbutTrue999;842745501 said:

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At cal I was an engineer, in a fraternity, and in rotc. Decidedly a conservative mix.

The 60s 'grads' living around the campus are certainly liberal, but the student body is about the same as other big publics. Liberal, but not crazy

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From exactly 20 years ago...

I always felt the student body at Berkeley wasn't as liberal as I thought. Lots of people from different backgrounds and beliefs, but not necessarily liberal.

The city of Berkeley on the other hand... definitely one of the more liberal cities in the country, but that's not the student body at UC Berkeley. I always felt that the city was responsible for a lot of the liberal label that the university gets.

packawana;842745385 said:

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I imagine Berkeley faculty are either too libertarian or too left-wing to be part of either major party.

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I would fully expect UC Berkeley to be far more Libetarian than some small
liberal arts collleges...

Go!Bears;842745489 said:

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Talk about cherry picking data to produce a result... from the article: "We looked up 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic and 314 Republican..."

In other words, there was no data for about half of their sample - but heck, let's draw conclusions anyway! It is possible (not probable) that there are more Republicans that Dems if you want to assume that R's in academia are more likely to Decline to State. And then there is the choice of fields. Why not choose Business? I have seen bad studies but this is beyond bad.

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It makes me angry that lots of people will read this article and tell their friends "Brown is really liberal and Berkeley is pretty conservative - some study said so!"

Is it that hard for anyone who gets told about this survey to say "wait a minute, how did they come up with that? Oh, they just looked at party registration? Well, that's BS!!"? I swear, this intellectual laziness that seems to be infecting everyone is a big part of why a major party has nominated someone like Trump, among other ridiculous bullsh*ttery.

University students today must be duly challenged to EVEN identify with one of the two parties!! At Cal, the socio-economics of the students recently more than likely reflects a more upper middle class bearing and perhaps conservative. Kids with money and from elite private high schools are enrolling, not to mention overseas students who have their own politics. Parents are now considering Cal as a better deal when considering the cost of privates. Environmental issues and our never-ending military engagements may be sending students to the left. Keep in mind that these 18-21 year olds are very impressionistic. I went from conservative to liberal the day after the Kent State shootings, further to the left during Vietnam and the loss of my student deferment at Cal, and then way to the left after Watergate. Being poor also somehow drives you to the left. How will today's students view our current national elections?? Independent, libertarian or simply won't care?

ferCALgm2;842745509 said:

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I always felt the student body at Berkeley wasn't as liberal as I thought. Lots of people from different backgrounds and beliefs, but not necessarily liberal.

The city of Berkeley on the other hand... definitely one of the more liberal cities in the country, but that's not the student body at UC Berkeley. I always felt that the city was responsible for a lot of the liberal label that the university gets.

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If the Cal students were really a liberal bunch they would have given up some of their GPA points to their less fortunate classmates and thus ended up at one of the CSUs.

72CalBear;842745792 said:

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University students today must be duly challenged to EVEN identify with one of the two parties!! At Cal, the socio-economics of the students recently more than likely reflects a more upper middle class bearing and perhaps conservative.

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Well, it's not that challenging. One of the parties is hostile to blacks, Latinos and Asians, who together make up a majority of the Cal student body...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/trump-asian-american-voters.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/us/politics/asian-american-voters-trump.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/trump_and_the_gop_are_alienating_latinos_the_way_they_once_alienated_black.html