r/wlu • u/NickBagelBoy • May 30 '26
Question Are there any professors that aren't overtly left leaning, maybe even right leaning?
Before it gets "controversial", I am not a right winger. I've just noticed that a lot of the professors are preachy about their politics and they seem to skew their teaching to match that, almost cherry picking things. I'm taking a course over the summer and one of the main portions is "social justice", and it just feels like I'm paying all this money to scroll through Tumblr in 2012.
I don't want to be told what to think or how I should feel about things. I want to learn. I notice it seems like a lot of professors are trying to push their own narrative in classes when they can.
Unfortunately it seems that most of psych/crim professors are this way, even the philosophy professors which is really disappointing. So I'm curious if there are any right leaning professors/classes, or just plain neutral "here is this side, here is that side, come to your conclusion" type of professors/classes that I could take for a change in scenery.
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u/Mammoth_Emphasis_976 May 30 '26
It’s because they are educators that value informed perspectives more than their individual experiences. The data is what informs their perspective. You can feel they way you want but what is being presented to you is the objective perspective
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u/olipocket16 May 30 '26
Highly educated people tend to be left leaning. Something about not seeing the world in black or white… understanding multiple perspectives… understanding the big picture… exploring past one’s own experiences… Hmm… maybe you should actually pay attention to what they’re saying my friend.
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u/justforuni Business May 30 '26
Girl OP literally said they’re not a right winger lol they just want to learn from a neutral pov which is fair
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u/olipocket16 May 30 '26
“I’m not a right winger” yet proceeds to make standard right wing complaints about higher education
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u/justforuni Business May 30 '26
what an odd thing to say? someone comes to reddit and simply points out something they’ve noticed and were hoping to take courses that are more neutral and here you come being all passive aggressive. they clearly state they’re not right winged either. you can answer someone’s question and educate them without coming off as a judgemental ass, or you can just ignore the post
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u/NickBagelBoy May 30 '26
You have zero clue about my politics or my beliefs. In fact, it seems like you are the one that thinks things are pretty black and white. Just because I said I'm tired of things feeling very one sided does not equate to me thinking that people of colour don't experience racism. Plot twist, you can be left leaning and still want to be around people who think differently, experience different view points that challenge your own, experiment with different thought patterns, and other things.
I just don't think it's professional, or conducive to learning, to put your own personal politics into as many classes as possible. We should be learning how to think, not what to think. It should be similar to separating the church and state ; ).
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u/CaterpillarInfamous9 May 30 '26
I have question on wym by someone not left leaning - like they dislike gay people and immigrants type or the economical type or a mix of both or what
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u/Ok-Thing5068 May 30 '26
you obviously didn't understand the post and are just trying to push your own political agenda. not helpful.
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u/NickBagelBoy May 30 '26
Not what I asked for. But thank you for proving my point. I also find it funny how you mention understanding multiple perspectives...
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u/olipocket16 May 30 '26
What exactly are you upset they’re teaching you? Social justice?
The course: “Despite equality laws people of colour still experience racism”
You: “I didn’t come here to be told about the real world!”
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u/ScaryFoal624493 Economics May 30 '26
No lol, educators js vote for the party that gives them better pay and benefits
that's how politics work, they can only target so many diff groups of ppl, liberals js tend to cater to large groups (elders) and voter availability (many voting stations are held in schools)
whereas blue colar workers (target dem of conservatives) and the middle class tend to make up a smaller portion of Canadians, and working long shifts mean reduced availability
having worked federal elections I'm speaking from experience
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u/Jumpy-Willingness383 May 30 '26
Yeah I know what you mean. I've tried a lot of arts and philosophy electives but mostly dropped them because they had a very predictable cadence and often re-used talking points directly from media. I even experienced one prof outright saying "if you support x, you shouldn't bother coming to class."
Funny enough it's some of the younger profs that I sometimes get the impression might be a bit different politically. For me I'm mostly in stats and computer science classes, so obviously the classes aren't about that stuff, but at least with some profs they had some interesting anecdotes that caught me surprised and left me unsure either way.
Also lol at the people going after you in this thread.
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u/NickBagelBoy May 30 '26
Your first paragraph is exactly what I was getting at. You said it in a way that my tired brain couldn't think of last night, so I appreciate it. I had notifications turned off and couldn't believe the dumpster fire I came back to this morning. I've given up on responding to most things. They can have the upvote validation and the feeling of victory based on the ratio. I appreciate your comment.
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u/CarbonX10 May 30 '26
Canadian universities and academia, more broadly, tend to lean heavily to the left politically. I think this creates an imbalance and that there should be greater efforts to ensure a wider range of perspectives and viewpoints are represented.
The fact that this post is already downvoted proves the bias lol
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u/malimal1 May 30 '26
A university is the last place is to find right leaning professor, and WLU is the left leaning on steroids, which is also a product of the surrounding community. I can't believe it's almost a decade ago, but on TA got kicked out of WLU for the crime of showing a Jordan Peterson video. Even if there are neutral or right leaning professors out there they would keep their mouths shut, which is actually the smart thing to do.
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u/Novaberrry May 30 '26
The TA was not kicked out and a formal apology was made by the prof who “reprimanded” them. The TA was allowed to continue their studies
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u/ItWasInBobcageon May 30 '26
The staff member who was present at the reprimand meeting was quickly gone from Laurier. It was widely viewed as a massive screw-up by an overzealous, inexperienced prof. Laurier seems pretty standard, compared to other Ontario universities, not “left leaning on steroids”.
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u/hamburglar_uw Jun 05 '26
No, WLU is not run of the mill or average. It is extreme, extreme left. I've read Masters thesis claiming institutionalized racism in the immigration system of Canada. Yes, Canada where practically everyone with a pulse and a sob story is admitted, and where its almost impossible to deport convicted criminals.
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u/Successful-Stomach40 May 30 '26
Most I've interacted with are finance but a couple in BBA courses in general
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u/Main_Finding8309 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Left or right, it's two wings of the same ugly bird, my friend.
The underlying message, if you want to boil it down, is that most of the subjects you're studying look at power structures. Who has the power, how they got there, and who was exploited so the ones at the top could retain their power.
And whether we like it or not, the ones who hold the power are always rich, usually male, and generally yt European.
You're going to hear about the patriarchy. You're going to hear about class. You're going to hear about gender, race, sexuality, trauma and disability. This is because these are things that are generally out of a person's control, yet they're the reasons people stay marginalized and powerless.
You don't have to agree with what you're learning. Your job, as a student, is to learn the material and pass your essays and exams.
You're taking one set of ideas and using them to analyze and understand another set of ideas (a text), through that specific lens or mindset.
Feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, etc. These "left" ideas really just give you a way to look at other ideas, so as long as you get the key concepts, you'll succeed.
The real skills you're learning are how to take in and process texts, how to interpret the information comparatively, and the research and writing skills you need to communicate your understanding to the person marking the work.
The divide between "left" and "right" is an unfortunate symptom of being chronically online. Tumblr in 2012 or any social media generally lacks the depth (or even the attention span) to be considered serious discourse. And in my opinion, the propagandizing of "left is bad" has allowed authoritarian ideas to take hold in the current political climate.
Fascists like broke, angry people, so it's a good idea to learn about this stuff if you don't like a boot on your neck.
Critical thinking, especially when it comes to the media you consume, is crucial, as is understanding why "the left" has always pushed back against the ones in power.
Oh, and ps, if yiu want a "right leaning university, " there's always Bob Jones University, a Bible college in the states (Kentucky, I think, can't remember) that shat out a lot of the Christian Nationalists who are running the mess in the States, including Project 2025 right now. Have fun going down THAT rabbit hole! Hahaha hahaha!
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u/Ok-Thing5068 May 30 '26
For electives try and choose courses that focus around something that wouldn't have much political bias in the first place, for example AS101 (astronomy). A lot of people shit on this course because it has a rep for the exams being hard but I didn't think it was that bad. If you're concerned about your required classes then maybe just switch programs or something idfk. Anyway most people on reddit lean left too so you might not get your best answer here. There was a post about this same topic a few months ago that I remember commenting on. Dm me.
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u/NickBagelBoy May 30 '26
Thank you for your input! I appreciate it. I'm going into my 4th year. Already went to college as well (I'm 32) and I'm very satisfied with my education so far and my program. It's not enough for me to change it. I was just curious to see if there were other viewpoints/professors. This comment was a breath of fresh air. Thank you for actually answering my question.
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u/Ok-Thing5068 May 30 '26
okay well if you are 4th year then don't change your program lmao. gesc151 is pretty good too
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u/justforuni Business May 30 '26
not to be biased but i agree with the other comment. a lot of econ profs favour carney too, not in a way where they push their values onto students but it’s very obvious that they like him and it’s for a very good reason. it’s also just statistically true that people with higher education tend to be left leaning for various reasons. honestly though you kind of just have to look past it, professors go into academia because they’re overly passionate about what they do and i’m sure most of them don’t purposefully try to push their values onto others
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u/NickBagelBoy May 30 '26
I get it for sure. I'm not surprised (not in a bad way). If it was a very right leaning school I would still be making this exact post, just flipped around. I'm just someone who craves different view points regardless of the topic.
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u/justforuni Business May 30 '26
yeah i think it’s totally valid to want to learn from a neutral pov. but again a lot of stuff that may seem left winged is just objectively true
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u/Impressive_Meeting78 May 30 '26
Data can and has been skewed to present a theory. I would take ‘informed perspectives’ with a grain of salt - it doesn’t prove any objectivity
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u/LemonySnickets13 May 30 '26
If you're talking about social justice I would imagine it'd be more left leaning. It'd be kinda crazy if it wasn't. That being said ive also had profs in psychology or philosophy (diff school) that have said outlandish things that made students uncomfortable so ??? A prof i had blatantly told the whole class hes racist and stereotypes black people bc if he saw a black person walking down the street esp at night he'd cross the street. Another prof made prison/rape jokes about Justin bieber years ago when he had that court case and had a mugshot in the orange shirt. Same prof also insinuated people were stupid for believing in God/Jesus/Bible. Certain opinions don't need to be shared.
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u/greengo07 May 30 '26
I'm confused. You resent a left leaning bias, and your answer is to look for MORE bias, just to the right? Wouldn't it make more sense to look for an UNbiased teacher? One that either presents both views or explains why the view not pushed is more valid?
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u/LOBaggage May 31 '26
Because left leaning education is what teaches them about the good and the bad. Right winged learning is cherry picked even more so. For example the banning of books. Most Right winged teachers would never teach you about what "barbecues" were in the 18th century when it comes to human rights and they wouldnt teach you about how we had basically our own concentration camps in canada for the japanese. Nor would they teach you about the fruit machine and the impacts of that during the cold war because it doesnt fit a right wingers narrative but its important to know these things so we don't do them again.
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u/Whane17 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Never met a preachy (about politics) teacher in my life. I've met a LOT of very accurate teachers who are very happy to link to sources and talk about why things are the way they are. You think it might be that your more right leaning so it seems that they are left leaning? Much in the way our current far right government thinks everyone else is far left?
EDIT: I don't mean this as an insult but as a possibility. We're often unaware of our own biases and the way your post is worded it comes off very much like your looking for validation rather than actual reasons. "Unfortunately it seems that most of psych/crim professors are this way, even the philosophy professors which is really disappointing." ie. I don't like this thing and want for them to be right leaning and am disappointed that they are not. You can't have it both ways.
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u/hamburglar_uw Jun 05 '26
WLU remains a major spot for leftist interpretations of social issues.
Recall Lindsay Shepherd a few years ago. It seems little has changed since then. If not for her recording, we would never know the extent of the entrenchment of the ideology. The professors in question were Nathan Rambukkana and Herbert Pimlott.
It seems at WLU, the mere act of using some example (the establishment doesn't like) to illustrate language evolution is akin to supporting despots or advocating for their ideas. This brought WLU into the international spotlight and not in a good way.
You might consider changing majors or changing universities.
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u/Impressive_Meeting78 May 30 '26
They threatened her with academic penalty. She had the foresight to record the meetings with the professors who reprimanded her and brought what happened to her to the media.
Good on her for not letting them bully her.
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u/ItWasInBobcageon May 30 '26
It will depend on the subject matter, to some degree. Social work profs will likely be more left-leaning than Business profs, for instance. However, even in Arts, you’ll find conservative profs.
A sociology professor (Richard Christy) recently ran to represent Kitchener Centre as a Progressive Conservative candidate: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ATzo2QUBV/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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u/catsandtea77 May 30 '26
Left leaning prof here, and i pride myself on teaching accurate content. Often that means it’s left-leaning because I’m teaching content that includes the full diversity of humanity and their experiences.