Political Startup Crowdpac Quantifies Liberal Takeover of Universities

Conservative speakers are far more likely to be disinvited from college commencements than liberal speakers, according to a predictive model developed by non-partisan political startup Crowdpac.

Using a proprietary algorithm, Crowdpac created a list of all major universities throughout the United States, ranked them on a customized scale ranging from 10 L (most liberal) to 10 C (most conservative), and calculated the political leanings of the speakers invited (and disinvited) to these schools.

The resulting data tend to affirm the left-wing bias of American academia today.

During the 2014 primary elections, Crowdpac used this same proprietary algorithm to “give politics back to the people” by helping people identify candidates closest to their own views. The company compiled data on each candidate’s positions on key issues, trends in political speeches, past political activity, and voting records in an interactive tool that helped educate voters about who and what they were choosing to represent them.

Of 72 schools on Crowdpac’s U.S. colleges list, only nine qualify for positive–or conservative ratings, and two (Brigham Young University and Hillsdale College) at the zero or neutral mark. That leaves 61 universities on the liberal side, the overwhelming majority of which have a 7 L score or below. Those include Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Yale, NYU, Columbia, MIT and Tufts.

All California colleges are in the 7 L and 8 L range except for two religious institutions: Azuza Pacific (4.88) and Biola Universities (1.00 L).

2014 could easily be dubbed the “year of disinvitation,” with public figures such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (6.43 C) and world-renowned author and critic of Islam Ayaan Hirsi Ali either withdrawing their invitations due to protests from liberal students, or having their invitations rescinded altogether. Fewer than 20 conservatives were invited to speak at 2014 commencements from a list of approximately 50 speakers Crowdpac put together.

Furthermore, out of a list of nearly 100 disinvites throughout the years, well over half of those speakers were conservative.

Overwhelmingly, the majority of professors are ranked as liberal. Over 1,100 educators on a list of 1,400+ received high liberal scores, and just over 100 were listed as being conservative.

Crowdpac lists the six most liberal colleges in the nation as:

1. University of Michigan: 8.72 L
2. UC Santa Barbara: 8.43 L
3. University of Wisconsin: 8.41 L
4. Cornell: 8.32 L
5. Berkeley: 8.22 L
6. Dartmouth: 8.02 L

The six most conservative schools are:

1. Bob Jones University: 9.12 C
2. Patrick Henry College: 7.47 C
3. Cedarville University: 5.34 C
4. College of Ozarks: 5.03 C
5. Azuza Pacific University: 4.88 C