Berkeley Conservatives Counter Steep Liberal Slant on Infamous Campus
by Jim Brown
April 12, 2004
(AgapePress) - Ever wonder what it's like to be a prominent conservative student leader at the country's most notoriously liberal university? The chairman of the College Republicans (CR) at the University of California-Berkeley can answer that question.Ever since the Vietnam War era, Cal-Berkeley has been a bastion of radical anti-war activism, feminism, and environmentalism. But even though the school is still a stronghold of extreme liberalism, it has a growing number of conservatives on campus. Among those is junior Andrea Irvin, who admits she is often ostracized by her peers because of her conservative views.
But the CR chairman says even though being a right-winger at Berkeley is "incredibly difficult" and has cost her some friendships, it is also rewarding. Irvin says her group is attempting to counter some of the left-wing thought on campus.
"Our chief goals are basically to put issues on the table that people wouldn't normally hear in class -- and a lot of it is about balancing the viewpoints that are spoken on campus," she says. "It's very, very one-sided in classrooms, as far as opinions about political issues and current events; and part of our mission is to educate students about the other side, the fact that there are alternative ways of looking at issues."
According to Irvin, the College Republicans have been very active in the midst of disruptive opposition and the administration's attempts at censorship, which has prompted more conservatives to "come out of the closet."
"Success builds on success, and the more Republicans who are willing to be a part of the club and really be outspoken about how they feel about issues, it makes the rest of the campus feel safer," Irvin relates. "Those that are Republican but have been kind of hiding it, or who don't feel comfortable in speaking up about it, see that we're out there and taking a stand on these things and are willing to come out and help us too."
In an interview last month with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Irvin said over the last two years, active membership in the campus CR has grown from 60 to 15 and the group's mailing list has doubled from 250 to 500.
Last fall, university officials tried to stop a patriotic 9-11 vigil held by the Berkeley College Republicans. More recently, CR held a "Support the Troops" rally and an election-related event called "A Barbecue for Bush."
