Liberals dominate 96% of political events at Carleton

A Campus Reform survey of official Carleton College events found that the private university hosted no conservative speakers during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Out of 25 speakers that were listed and promoted on the school’s official calendar, 24 were found to be either liberal or left-leaning while only one speaker was independent or did not show a clear political or ideological preference.

Not a single right-leaning or conservative event, however, was listed on the calendar between September 2016 and August 2017.

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A majority of the events listed on Carleton’s official calendar featured panels with multiple speakers, with topics ranging from analysis of the 2016 presidential election to immigration and civil rights.

Other events focused on topics such as “Race as a Proxy in American Kinship,” the “Movement for Justice in El Barrio,” and “Confronting the Intersecting Stigmas Around Sexuality and Mental Illness.”

Campus Reform considered each speaker’s published works, organizational ties, and public remarks in determining their political categorization. Speakers who were invited to campus by student groups but not officially promoted by the university were excluded from consideration.

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Of the 24 liberal leaning speakers, notable names include Democratic Sen. Al Franken; Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!”; and president of the Minneapolis NAACP Jason Sole.

Campus Reform's Campus Speaker Index analyzes official university calendars to determine which speaking engagements were expressly organized and hosted by the university. The index does not include any events that were hosted by student groups and outside organizations.

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