For thebin

[Nevada Hoya]

Last night I interviewed my first male student in about eight years for Georgetown. I had about 20-25 females during that time (not that I am complaining). This student was probably the most interesting interviewee that I have had. He was enrolled in the IB course at his HS and is going to miss being valedictorian because of calculus. Among other things he is a professional magician (did a card trick for me to end his interview), and he works on the Strip three nights a week. He said he started out in HS as a liberal and an atheist, but during his HS years something changed. I didn't want to delve too deeply in my 30 minute interview, but he (1) struggled to get a Teenager Republican club on campus (had to get the ACLU involved with that, since the principal of his school wouldn't allow that at first; incidentally Gary Peck, formerly of GULC, is the head of the ACLU in Las Vegas) and (2) is going to be baptized a Catholic on Easter. And not only that - he wants to become a priest versed in Canon Law.
His question to me was would he finds his niche at Georgetown or is it so totally overwhelmed by liberals that he should just go to Steubenville. He did confess that he couldn't spend four years in Steubenville, Ohio. He loves DC, loves the campus, but he is hesitant to go there if he would be isolated. Any comments and advice?

[thebin]

Don't have time right now Nevada, but would be happy to share more of my humble thoughts tommorow. In summary though, I think GU is a fair place in the scheme of things re: faculty bias. I feel reluctant to give my recomendation to this young man I have never met, as it seems so worthless to me, but for what its worth, I firmly believe that GU provides as much balance as one needs to be able to develope intellectually. Its not Brown. And personally, I would not choose a campus that was to the right of center in America, I like GU just where it is, right about in the middle and fairly intellectually curious IMO. I look forward to speaking with you more about this in the weekend.

[Nevada Hoya]

Thanks, bin; hope to hear more. Of course, when I was in school in the early '60's, we had a pretty conservative student body, so I have no first hand experience of the prevailing climate there today. Not saying that some of us have not changed our views over the last 40 years.

[showcase]

From '91 to '95, I thought the overall student body trended just a little right of center, and I never really discerned a slant in my profs' presentations.

On the other hand, between '91 and '93, I had difficulty discerning my profs, period.

[HoyaTejano]

I guess historically the University's student body goes through phases with its politcal identity. There was a great article in the City Paper back in '99 that chronicled the humble beginnings, counter-cultural mid-life and anticlimactic death of WGTB radio on campus. Evidently it was a spawning ground for campus Leftism.

I went into SFS in Fall '96 more liberal than I did by the time I graduated. Experiences vary.