County GOP misunderstands "liberal arts"
As election night rolled around I was slightly excited to be assigned to cover Johnson County Council and school board because, unlike most races of the year, Republicans were the dominant winners. Being a Republican myself, I thought it would be exciting to watch the celebration of their overwhelming victory.
Boy was I wrong about that. Rather than elation joy, and excitement, I felt … embarrassed. Walking around interviewing the incumbents and newly-elected officials, the other The Franklin staffer with me began to get some less-than-complimentary comments about Franklin College from my fellow Republicans.
They seemed – and I mean this in the nicest way possible – rather ignorant about what a liberal arts college is. Rather than an institution whose goals are to impart general knowledge and develop individual capacities, some of them gave the impression that instead we were all left-wing liberal lunatics.
I, for one, am far from left-wing, or liberal. (The lunatic part is debatable). I am exceedingly Republican and conservative on most issues.
But here I was being told that because I was partaking in a liberal arts education, I was no doubt a liberal. That’s like saying if I’m standing in a field, I’m a cow.
Multiple people at the celebration found it necessary to remind us to think for ourselves and to not let our liberal professors sway the way we think or make decisions. One urged us to bring that message back to campus.
It’s disconcerting to me that that the people who are in charge of running Johnson County can believe that Franklin College has gone out of its way to hire the most liberal faculty and staff in order to influence current and future students thought processes and views.
That’s just not Franklin College, the faculty or even the students who attend it.
Yes, we may not be the most diverse college, but we aren’t sheltered and if anything Franklin College and the professors here have taught us to think for ourselves, to not take the things we’re told at face value and to question everything.
Maybe more so because I attend a college where my views and ideas are called into question, I could argue that I have become stronger and more developed in my support of those principles I hold.
Another aspect of Franklin College that I think has been overlooked in all this is that we are a Baptist college traditionally. No, we may not pray together at the start of every day or partake in campus-wide mandatory chapel, but if you look for it, you will find an overwhelming amount of faith being lived out each day.
It’s no big surprise that those people who attend church services regularly and hold strongly to a life of faith to God statistically vote more conservatively than other people. Though it doesn’t mean all the people who walk down Dame Mall will preach you the Good Word, there’s quite a bit of chance that they’ve at least had some religious influences during their time here.
So if my other arguments aren’t enough to compensate for our “liberal” influences here at Franklin College, maybe our Baptist background will do the trick.
My message is this: Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians or whatever you may be, I urge you to be what a liberal arts college strives for us to be; not loose cannons with crazy ideas but rather well-developed decision makers with open minds.
Let it be known, liberal arts doesn’t mean liberally minded.
