"People don't take you seriously when you admit to being conservative," says Anna Tsui, a student at UMass-Boston.
(JUSTINE HUNT/GLOBE STAFF)
As a freshman at Harvard University, Rachel Wagley has engaged in all the late-night political discussions she had hoped for when she was in high school in Spokane, Wash.
"However, it's always me against all," wrote Wagley, who is secretary of the Harvard Republican Club, in an e-mail, "the lone girl who put Thompson and Huckabee signs in her window versus the boys with Obama signs or the girls who wear all red on Karl Marx's birthday."
Out-of-town students know the Boston area's liberal reputation before they arrive, but it takes a while before they understand what it's really like to live here.
According to the social networking website Facebook, about 3 percent of students identify themselves as conservatives at most of Greater Boston's four-year colleges. With its figure at 7 percent, Boston College stands out as a relative bastion of conservatism.
In contrast, 38 percent of Boston Conservatory students identify themselves as either liberal or very liberal, while at Emerson College the figure is 37 percent, giving them the two highest populations of liberals at city schools.
Because of her political views, Wagley has been the target of practical jokes from her liberal peers. Last semester, Wagley says, someone snuck into her room and replaced her Fred Thompson sign with one that expressed support for Barack Obama.
"I like to believe that this exaggerated hostility stems from my peers being scared of the answers, like they fear that there's truth in what I say," Wagley wrote. "But I also like to believe that the Seahawks won the Super Bowl two years ago and that Dumbledore never really died."
Caleb Weatherl, a Harvard sophomore from Midland, Texas, has been surprised in a more positive way.
While visiting Cambridge as a high school student, Weatherl was sporting a shirt that supported President Bush on the front and stated "Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Democrat" on the back. As he was getting into cab back to his hotel, Weatherl said, profanities were yelled in his direction.
Since then, however, he has found his peers to be more accepting of his beliefs, Weatherl said.
"Fortunately, once enrolling at Harvard, I quickly realized that Harvard students - while liberal Democrats for the most part - are much more tolerant of Republicans than some of the Cambridge locals that spend their time in the Pit by the Harvard Square T stop," said Weatherl, who is president of the Harvard Republican Club.
Daniel Hartman, president of the College Republican Club at Tufts, has found a similar tolerance among his peers.
"Tufts University has always been a school that prides itself on free speech and open dialogue," said Hartman, who hails from Dartmouth, near New Bedford. "While many of the students often disagree with me, they also strongly respect me for my views."
But others report difficulty finding their place as conservatives, particularly in classrooms.
"For the most part I try to stay quiet in most class discussions because it always ends up as me with the rest of the students, and the professor, on the other side," said Andrea Alberto, a 20-year-old anthropology major at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. "It's hard to express any kind of opinion because it won't even be considered," said the Walpole native.
Joyce Morgan, assistant dean of students at UMass, acknowledged "students who have conservative views may feel like they answer a lot of questions about their politics, simply because it may be different from the opinions of others. I think, particularly at UMass, we try to embrace differences of opinion and belief, in and out of the classroom. . . . We have often had active political groups on campus, both conservative and liberal, and all are welcome."
But the official policy doesn't do much for Anna Tsui, an economics major from Roslindale.
"People don't take you seriously when you admit to being conservative," said Tsui, 22. "Immediately, people associate you with being a bigot and a warmonger. The moment you tell someone you're conservative, it's like you've become blacklisted. I've lost friends just because of my views.
"When I go to parties, I can't say 'Hi, I'm Anna Tsui, and I'm a conservative.' Just saying that causes such animosity in people."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
