Report: Liberal 2012 Commencement Speakers Outnumber Conservatives 7-to-1
- Posted on May 14, 2012 at 8:05pm by
Becket Adams
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Here’s a shocker: the top 100 universities* in America prefer left-leaning commencement speakers to conservatives by a ratio of seven-to-one, according to a new report from the Young America’s Foundation (YAF), the principal youth activism wing of the conservative movement.
In fact, according to the YAF report, out of 106 keynote speakers scheduled to address America’s “top universities,” an astounding 71 can be identified as “liberal” while the rest are either politically unaffiliated (25) or conservative (10).
“Among the top 35 universities, only one conservative is scheduled to speak, compared to 29 liberals,” YAF spokesman Ron Meyer writes, adding that 16 White House officials have been scheduled to speak this year, more than all the conservatives combined.
“Young America’s Foundation’s previous research shows that Bush administration officials spoke at the top 100 universities a total of 14 times throughout his Presidency. In President Obama’s first three years, administration officials have spoken 29 times—more than double the total number of Bush administration speeches,” Meyer adds.
Among the White House officials scheduled to speak this year are:
- Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services Secretary (Georgetown University)
- Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy (Penn State University)
- Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States (Virginia Tech)
- Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the EPA (University of Washington and Tulane University)
- Valerie Jarrett, Senior advisor to the White House (American University)
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor (New York University)
- John Brennan, chief counterterrorism adviser to the President (Fordham University)
How did YAF put this list together? What were the criteria?
“To qualify as ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ for the survey, speakers must have publicly supported ideological causes through speaking, writing, serving in public office, commentating, or financial contributions,” Meyer explains.
And here’s another fun fact from the report:
An ongoing Foundation study shows that President Obama has spoken on campuses one out of every 12 days on his Presidency, and the Daily Caller reports administration officials have made 130 appearances at colleges and universities since spring 2011.
That’s quite a speaking schedule.
But it makes sense. As The Blaze noted in January, President Obama won the presidency with 68 percent of the youth vote, the biggest in American presidential history. And this is no small thing. It can be argued that youth vote guaranteed him the Oval Office.
Therefore, it only makes sense that the president, in an attempt to win back the collegiate vote, would spend so much time campaigning on campuses.
“This administration wants to sell its failed policies to college students, and clearly, higher education is more than willing to help. As tuition and student loan debt grow at historic rates, what are students getting for the money?” YAF’s Ron Robinson asks.
“An education from leftist professors that—combined with the Obama administration’s policies—has left 53 percent of recent grads unemployed or underemployed. These commencement speakers are just the icing on higher education’s indoctrination cake,” he adds.
These are the “top 10” American universities and their commencement speakers:
1. Harvard University
Speaker: Fareed Zakaria
Occupation: Editor-at-Large, Time; CNN Host
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Commentator)
2. Princeton University
Speaker: Steve Carell
Occupation: Actor and comedian
Ideological Tilt: Leans liberal (Comedy)
3. Yale University
Speaker: Barbara Walters
Occupation: Host, The View
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Commentator)
4. Columbia University
Speaker: Lee Bollinger
Occupation: President, Columbia University
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Teacher and Speaker)
5. California Institute of Technology
Speaker: Elon Musk
Occupation: Technology entrepreneur
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Major donor)
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Speaker: Salman Khan
Occupation: Founder of Khan Academy
Ideological Tilt: Leans liberal (Foreign politics)
7. Stanford University
Speaker: Cory Booker
Occupation: Mayor of Newark
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Politician)
8. University of Chicago
Speaker: Stephen Raudenbush
Occupation: Lewis Sebring Professor of Sociology
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Teaching record)
9. University of Pennsylvania
Speaker: Geoffrey Canada
Occupation: President and Chief Executive Officer, Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc.
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Obama supporter).
10. Duke University 
Speaker: Fareed Zakaria
Occupation: Editor-at-Large, Time; CNN Host
Ideological Tilt: Liberal (Commentator)
Click here to see the rest of YAF’s list of 2012 commencement speakers.
*As identified by “US News and World Report.”
Front page photo courtesy Shutterstock. This story has been updated.
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Comments (42)
junkmaninohio
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 1:34pmToday’s college students are taught by liberal idiots who do not live in the real world and then, upon graduation, they‘re sent off with remarks from useful liberal idiots to go out and find jobs that don’t exist.
Report Post »AnAmerican111
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 12:31pmA truly pathetic list of nobody worth listening to…………..
Report Post »Fareed?,,,,,you go to Duke University and have Fareed or whatever he’s called speak at your commencement..are you kidding me…that’s the best you can get?……………..That’s hilarious! I want a refund.
topperj
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 11:40am5 years and $200,000 and all I have to show for it is Fareed Zakaria? No thanks.
Report Post »dadsrootbeer
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 10:18amAnd 50% of these graduates will be unemployed or underemployed. Wonder if they realize they are embracing the wrong team?
Report Post »mils
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 10:40amthey will be unemployed with student loan debt that will pile up….then how will they vote in november. for that guy that came and talked about the bright pie in the sky future they have, all the rainbows, how they are the smartest grads ever…or the reality bound person that wants to actually help them get a job.
Report Post »universities do a disservice to students with their liberal agendas, only the students can stop it, or walk away.
Stoic one
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 11:50amWhen those students DEFAULT on their loans, they will be in for one UGLY surprise; they will have a personalized version of the entire federal debt and obligations.
Report Post »TimDionisopoulos
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 10:01amUnfortunately this is not surprising. Identifying liberal abuses is important. The next step is to take action. Protest liberal graduation speakers and expose your school’s bias. Check out this tactical article on CampusReform.org: http://bit.ly/IVVhKs
Report Post »hi
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 9:16amMy teen has grades and athletics and will be recruited to go to any of the top ten. It hard to give that prestige up. We’ll see what my teen chooses. Right now my teen is leaning toward a top Christian school instead. My teen has been in an extreme far left lib school now and is tired of the anti-Christian message. Then again, Jeremy Lin is an awesome Christian who went to Harvard. Maybe God wants a light in the darkness.
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 9:34amPlease forgive me for giving unsolicited advice, but I can’t remain silent. I wanted the same thing for my kid, and thought a Catholic university was the answer. I was wrong. Before enrolling, if you are considering a Catholic university, study the history of the “Lasallians”. During orientation, the word “Lasallian” is dropped left and right and I had no idea what it meant. (I just thought they were an order of Brothers) After researching it, it sounds like they are “Christian Socialists”. Here’s a good place to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_socialism
I do not know if other denominations of Christian universities have the same problem as the Catholic ones.
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 9:46amJust a little more info:
http://www.lasallian.info/template/page.cfm?id=108
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 10:14amLast thing, I promise!
The site for “Lasallian Social Justice Institute” is also very enlightening. Especially scroll down to the “Millennium Goals”:
http://www.lasalle2.org/English/Mission/Justice/mijus.php
Sorry again for the advice. I just thought that your teen might not want to jump from the pot into the frying pan!
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:57amHow many universities are going to have the students recite the “Pledge to Social Justice and Environmentalism” before they receive their diplomas this year?
Here’s the Pledge:
“I, __________pledge to explore and take into account the social justice and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organization for which I work.”
Catholic “Lasallian” universities have this part as well:
“I will further the Lasallian tradition by continuing to learn and by serving others to build better communities and a better society.”
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 9:22amIn 2010 there were over 200 universities across America that were making this pledge a “new tradition”. Supposedly, this is a growing tradition that should include even more schools by now. Pay attention parents and students! Don’t stand and say it unless you believe in it! Don’t let the schools intimidate, embarrass, or trick you into making the pledge!
Report Post »JRook
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 10:45am“I will further the Lasallian tradition by continuing to learn and by serving others to build better communities and a better society.” What a terrible thing for young citizens to aspire to. Your right better that they seek to make as much money as possible with no regard for the consequences. I can think of no community in the US that would not be much better off with more true citizens. You know the ones like our grandparents were, who willing paid taxes to build better roads, schools, libraries, parks, universities. For example, in the 70′s, 80′s, 90′s the state of Ohio paid 70% of the cost of in state universities. So the baby boomers got a lot of help going to college. Today those same baby boomers clamor for lower taxes. As a result the state of Ohio no pays only 17% of the cost of in state universities. So let’s talk citizenship and investing in our communities. Not just ourselves.
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 11:06am@JROOK, Don’t try to twist this. We know the CODE words. We KNOW the Progressive’s language!
Report Post »Tigress1
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 11:26am@JROOK, I’d say the vast majority of readers on this site understand the Progressive language. For example: “Social Justice” is code for “Socialism”. “Environmentalism” is code for “the Green Movement” which is rooted in Socialism, Communism, GLOBAL redistribution of wealth, and the New World Order.
Glenn, I just though of a good book for you to write! How about writing a “Dictionary of Progressive Terms”?
Report Post »babylonvi
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 11:30amHaa! They’ll be extremely lucky to get any job at all. The socialists have long ago taken over the education establishment. It takes at least ten years to ‘recover’ from the college experience to once again become a freedom loving American. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of ten years to wait just now. The communists on the above list(most of them) are self hating, America hating pawns of the Globalists who are trying to drag us down to the level of the poorest dirt eating native because, here it comes, the Liberal Mantra, ‘It’s not fair’. Social justice has no real meaning any more, now that the Liberal-Progressive Socialists have reduces it to mean ‘death and destruction’. Note how the Muslim Brotherhood, Jihadists and the Progressives have banded together as they ALL now wish for the return to the 9th century, when things were much simpler and more fair(You were royalty or you were a serf). Of course ALL these elitists imagine themselves as ‘royalty’.
Report Post »burnbabylon
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 3:31pm@TIGRESS1
Report Post »Colorblind=racially insensitive.
Detroit paperboy
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:55amCollege has become an expensive joke……..the degrees they SELL, aren’t worth the paper their printed on…….
Report Post »Best_Patriot
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:54amIt‘s because Conservatives don’t go to college.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 9:32amYou’re right, they go start businesses…….
Report Post »Best_Patriot
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 10:37amAnd run them into the ground on credit they can’t make good on. Then they start a little club and complain about how it‘s the other guy’s fault.
Report Post »citizen0000
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:16amPeople only want Feelgoodism, (my word) Liberals are popular because they live on emotion and offer hope and change for a better tomorrow, for the children and the poor to have a better chance. Feelgoodism never comes with real solutions, but it feels good and that is better than actually solving problems.
Report Post »-only a Democrat can smile at you and make you feel good about watching them take your money
Re-Founding Sons
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:46amWell said! Those were the kind of things, as a youth, that I was enamored with; of course you want to be with the party who is most compassionate right? Everything they say, sounds good in principle. To me it felt good and right to be a democrat back then.
Report Post »Luckily, I grew up, started thinking for myself, and doing my own research.
marybethelizabeth
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:01amYAF is a fifth column front group.
An alliance between them and Mr. Beck, who has called for an iron-fisted dictatorship to save us from imminent social chaos, is inevitable.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:10amyou really really really have ISSUES
please take your meds
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:56amEven I skipped my college graduation and post college graduation ceremonies way back when. I couldn’t stand all the “pompous, proud, arrogance” of those events as a young adult. Boring!!! And, the clown suits every one wears as if anyone truly studies any more. Heck fire, all kids have to do know is “goggle” stuff and it’s there. Geesh! We had to go into the dusty old stacks, read forever, THEN, get this you youngsters out there, COPY EVERYTHING BY HAND. YES! Education back then was work. And, the best part was if you lived in “fly over country” you didn’t have to listen to liberals spout anything. Can I get an “amen”?
Report Post »mccracken
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 8:33amNo, you are full of it.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:50am.
Report Post »Let’s hope their ceromonies are outdoors, and it rains like hell…..
Tickdog
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:44amyep. conservatives bury their heads in the sand and let the trash take over.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:43amObama shall not only go down in history as the most radical, divisive, corrupt and treasonous of the nations Presidents to date; he shall go down as the one who constantly campaigned for reelection from the day he took office.
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:42amNot much of a surprise here!! Want to really impress me? Put the monies these people are being “floated” to make these commencement speeches……and equate that to the average annual income in America!! Let them eat cake!
Report Post »huey6367
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:38amI would expect these “institutions” to have liberal speakers.
Report Post »TheBurningTruth
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:29amThis is why I will NEVER make a voluntary donation to ANY college or university (only the taxes extorted out of my by the govt). There is no freedom of thought or expression on a college campus today. The overpaid / underworked professors don’t teach how to think, they teach socialist / marxist garbage. If I were a hiring manager, I would NOT hire a college graduate, I’d stick to those in their 40s and 50s as having learned how to live in the real world. Heaven knows there are enough loony liberals in that group to avoid!
Report Post »HKS
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:27amSince Liberals are professional students, that would be expected. They are taught to pass on their liberal ways forever and this is considered the best stage to do it. Look at all the most famous radicals, you guessed it college professors.
Report Post »justangry
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:19amYou guys put Romney on the liberal side of the pie chart, right?
Report Post »blanco5
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:17amYup, America’s youth is officially and successfully dumbed down.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:16amAfter 4 to 5 years of liberal Communist-Socialist indoctrination, would you expect different in the speech that sends them out the door?
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:13amWhere’s the “Diversity”?
Report Post »johnjamison
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:09amHow is that news everyone knows colleges are liberal indoctrination centers and nothing more. If colleges sole purpose was higher education and not liberal indoctrination we wouldn’t have all these effing dumba55es at OWS
Report Post »oneillptgd
Posted on May 15, 2012 at 7:06amTolerance of ideas is very one sided. Fear drives the left. The proof is that when a major speaking engagement offered to a conservative person, what happens? Outrageous lies, fear mongering and threats. Our future is being threatened and we say nothing! Students have been subjected to brain washing for at least 5 years. Takes a long time to fix their hearts and minds after. Is “university education” worth your soul? THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!!!! The ratio of conservative/liberal “educator” is just as unbalanced.
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