Survey Shows Exonians Self Censor Views

Exeter is widely considered to be a liberal campus—a perception that stems perhaps from the frequent jokes about President Donald Trump delivered at assembly or the prominence of progressive clubs such as Feminist Club, Woke or ALES. Results from the ESA survey suggest however, that, while a greater number of Exonians do identify as liberal rather than conservative, the PEA community may not be as wholly liberal as is commonly perceived.

According to the survey, Exeter is more liberal than Phillips Andover, Deerfield Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon’s combined average. Of the 730 Exonians who responded to the survey, 44 percent identified as liberal, while 13 percent identified as conservative. The ESA comparatively had a 34 to 18 percent liberal-to-conservative ratio.

For liberal Exonians such as prep Janessa Vargas, the prevalence of liberal voices on campus is affirming. “I feel like my views usually resonate with the majority of what’s on campus, which is liberal or more democratic views… A lot of the faculty share the same values, which makes it nice,” Vargas said.

However, Vargas and many other Exonians harbor concerns that Exeter’s majority-liberal environment limits political discourse on campus by silencing more conservative opinions. “Conservative views, since they are a minority on campus, don’t have a voice,” prep Danielle Sung said.

The ESA survey results seem to support this observation, as 52 percent of Exeter respondents divulged that they have, at some point, felt the need to censor their political views on campus. “There [have] been times in which I've actually expressed my views and been insulted when, in actuality, all my views come from a good place... Every time I express them [now], I am very hesitant because I do not want my views to be misconstrued,” senior Zachary Spencer said.

Looking at a gender breakdown of the respondents, 28.03 percent of males identify as liberals, while 55.31 percent of females do so; 20.76 percent of males identify as conservative while only 7.25 of females do so. Spencer agreed that Exonians are often more sympathetic to certain views depending on their demographics. Spencer said that perhaps survey results revealed more women were liberal because of how the feminist movement has become a liberal issue, repelling some Republicans. “When you look at feminism in the past, they’ve pushed the man’s problems to the forefront along with females, simply striving for equality,” he said. “Now, it seems that that is no longer their agenda when you look at a lot of their platforms.”

Lower Annabel Ramsay noted similar trends, adding that Exeter statistics reflect a national tendency. “[The survey results] may have to do with females aligning themselves as socially liberal more than men,” she said. “If you look at the United States as a whole, there are generally more liberal women than men; it makes sense that campus reflects that trend.”

Students believe that Exeter’s dominant liberal values are reflected in campus-wide programming such as campus activities and assemblies. According to Ramsay, predominantly liberal-leaning assemblies are a prime example of unofficial political censorship on campus.“I can't remember any assembly speaker identifying as Republican or even hinting at sympathizing more right,” she said.

Upper and self-identified conservative Pepper Pieroni agreed, adding that the humanities classroom is another space where he often feels the need to water down his political stances. “I have often found in history classes and English classes that I limit what I say, not only because I think that it would spark a whole other conversation, but also it is easier to assume a liberal stance because that’s what the status-quo is at Exeter,” Pieroni said.

When conservative and liberal views clash, political discussion can become fraught. “I think people at Exeter are very defensive and often you'll come into an argument rather than coming to a discussion. It is very hard to get someone to change ideas, especially for Exonians,” Pieroni said. “After an Exonian says ‘I think we should have a wall,’ the immediate reaction is the assumption that the person is stupid or racist. A lot of people associate being conservative with being evil.”

Race is another area of fraught political discussion, according to lower Nahla Owens. “As a person of color, I think my views are definitely valued by other people of color as far as that realm goes… [but] it doesn’t matter as much in certain spheres. If I’m around a group of white friends, I feel less comfortable bringing up those issues than if I’m in the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA),” she said.

For this reason, many Exonians, including liberals, feel the need to surround themselves with like-minded peers. “I think it’s in spaces where I haven’t felt safe or that I know that I’m with people who identify as being more conservative or whose political views I’m unsure of that I feel I cannot express my views,” Vargas said. “I prefer not to be disrespected, especially when it comes to immigration or the border wall or border security. I don’t think it’s a matter self-segregation, I think it’s a matter of self preservation and making sure that I’m safe.”

Not all Exonians share this need. Prep Aletheia Zou surrounds herself with friends who frequently engage in divergent political discourse. “During political discussions within my friends, it’s a friendly debate,” she said. “They’re not arguing for the sake of arguing with each other, but because they see that they have different views and that’s interesting to them.”

Lower Charlie Preston believes the fraught nature of Exeter political discussion should be altered. “I have a lot of conservative friends, and most of them are shut out or shut down by people saying that their opinions are just straight out toxic or calling them very cruel names just for moderately conservative opinions,” he said. “I don’t think we accept all peoples’ viewpoints as much as we should.”

Students believe this shift must occur from within classrooms.“If there’s one person who has a different political view, no matter liberal or conservative, they’re going to feel really singled out and maybe cornered because of their differing views, and sometimes the teacher doesn’t exactly help with that depending on which side of the political spectrum they fall on,” Vargas said.

Ramsay put forward a possible solution: for the administration to insert conservative viewpoints into the curriculum. “Students are going to make their own opinions and so we can't change how the students speak,” she said. “I think maybe getting one or two conservatives speakers might help.”

Similarly, Mathematics Instructor Filip Sain feels that the school should remain politically unbiased. “In my opinion a school should be apolitical, just as other institutions such as the military, the judiciary and the civil service should be apolitical,” he said.

Preston, on the other hand, believes that the administration is not the problem. “Principal Rawson tends to stick to basic values like accepting all people, comforting people in times of trouble, but he doesn’t get too explicitly political,” Preston said.

Preston described the students as the root of the polarizing climate. “The problem is being intolerant of other people’s viewpoints or basic misinterpretation of what people are saying,” he said. “The slightest conservative viewpoint for some people can mark you as a racist, and the slightest liberal viewpoint for some people can mark you as a snowflake.”

“The problem,” Preston believed, “is students who after four years of Harkness are still not willing to listen to each other.”