With the presidential primaries only eight days away, there has been no shortage of political involvement on campus. Among the tables for Bernie Sanders and the canvassing for Hillary Clinton, where do conservative voices find a space on campus?
On a campus with a high proportion of liberal viewpoints, right-leaning students can sometimes feel there is a stigma attached to labeling themselves a conservative, students Charles Springer ’17 and Brian Chen ‘17 said.
A number of student groups, such as the College Republicans, The Dartmouth Review and the College Libertarians, cater to students with conservative viewpoints.
While participants in The Review and the College Libertarians hold a more diverse range of views, the College Republicans more clearly define themselves as a student group for right-of-center students.
“Our purpose is to connect students with Republican campaigns as much as possible, those students who are interested with volunteering, working or supporting them,” Springer, president of College Republicans, said. However, the College Republicans do not actively endorse any particular candidate.
Austen Robinson ’19, co-vice president of the College Republicans, saw a key role of the group as facilitating a balance of views on campus.
“The prevailing political orthodoxy on campus is liberal, I’d go so far to say very liberal,” Robinson said. “I think that its important to have balance.”
Those interviewed noted the lack of political diversity amongst faculty. When asked, Springer said he does not think there is a conservative-leaning department on campus.
“Oh Lord no, the closest I can think of might be the economics department,” Springer said.
Chen — who is the managing editor and vice president of The Review, co-vice president of College Republicans and co-president of College Libertarians — said he could think of about four professors who he considers fiscally conservative or libertarian.
Economics professor Andrew Samwick, who worked at the Council of Economic Advisors in the administration of George W. Bush from 2003 to 2004, said that the department’s faculty represented all points of the political spectrum.
“The diversity in the economics department clearly spans the center of the distribution of views because you clearly have people like myself with right-of-center views and then you have other people with left-of-center views,” Samwick, who is also faculty advisor to the College Republicans and director of the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, said.
The College Republicans held a meeting with College President Phil Hanlon after the Black Lives Matter protest in Baker-Berry Library in November of last year where they raised the issue of faculty diversity in relation to ideological views.
“We mentioned that diversity should include diversity of viewpoint,” Chen said. “We gave the specific example of [including more] evangelical Christian faculty.”
The College Republicans also encouraged people to vote in the upcoming New Hampshire primary. The group has helped organize multiple voter registration drives at the College alongside the College Democrats.
The group has 30 active supporters, according to Springer.
Springer credited Michelle Knesbach ’17, the previous president of the College Republicans, with a revival of the group.
“She did many good things for the group,” Springer said. “She took the group that was almost non-existent and she started contacting campaigns and contacting students. We now have a lot of active support and a lot of campaign contacts.”
This past Friday, the College Republicans hosted New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte. The group will help to host presidential candidate Jeb Bush this upcoming Tuesday.
However, Springer said there was a hesitation from various Republican campaigns to bring candidates to Dartmouth’s campus.
“There has been a history in the past that whenever a Republican politician speaks on campus they might get heckled,” Springer said. “The Rick Perry incident was not that unusual.”
Springer was referring to an incident when Rick Perry, speaking on campus in November 2014, was asked multiple questions about anal sex by students protesting Perry’s past support of anti-sodomy laws.
Republican presidential candidates Rand Paul and Chris Christie spoke at Salt Hill Pub and Bush will speak at the Hanover Inn when he visits on Tuesday.
The Review is another group with many conservatives that has grown in recent years. The bi-weekly magazine is a private company independent from the College with an off-campus office on Main Street. In a similar way to the College Republicans, a Review member saw the group’s purpose as providing balance to campus debate.
“The role of The Review is primarily to shatter a stultifying, liberal consensus,” Max Frankel ’19, a writer and fundraiser for the publication, said. “The Review provides a great counterpoint to that consensus.”
Frankel added that his opinion of the The Review’s role on campus is not necessarily representative of the group as a whole.
“It’s a place where people can freely express their views,” Chen said.
The Review, like the College Republicans, has also seen growth in its membership.
“Every time there’s a big move with a type of protest like Freedom Budget, Black Lives Matter, we get a very large surge in members.” Chen said.
Chen also referenced the Real Talk protest — a protest that occurred during the Dimensions show in 2013 — as another event that caused an increase in membership. He added that members of The Review hold conservative cultural values, but the degree to which they are involved in conservative politics varies.
Frankel provided more detail on the range of views at The Review.
“The Review is conservative, kind of contrarian, but not really,” he said. “We have a wide spectrum, we have certain liberals who write for us, then we have ultra-conservatives, we have monarchists at The Review, ultramontanist Catholics at The Review. As long as they’re not a completely [politically correct], completely doctrinaire liberal, we accept you.”
Frankel added that liberals interested in an exchange of honest ideas are welcome.
However, The Review has not and does not intend to endorse a particular candidate in the presidential race, according to Frankel.
The College Libertarians, an open group, exists to have open debates through weekly discussions dinners. The group also has members from a broad spectrum of libertarian students. Approximately ten people regularly attend the discussions.
“They would probably lean right but they lean libertarian,” Spring said of the group. “They’re fairly laissez-faire.”
However, Chen said he believes the group is not conservative like the College Republicans or The Review.
“The Libertarians is not really a conservative organization like The Review is,” Chen said.
