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According to a poll conducted by Brown University’s student newspaper, only a tiny percentage of students on campus identify as conservatives, and most of those conservatives do not feel comfortable expressing their opinions in public.
The poll, conducted by the Brown Daily Herald, found that only 0.8% of students on the approximately 11,000-student campus identify as “very conservative.” Only 5.3% identify as “somewhat conservative.” While moderates make up 13.3% of the student population, students who identified as “somewhat liberal or progressive” totaled 41.1% of the student population. More than 36% described themselves as “very liberal or progressive.”
The poll’s sample size for the question about political ideology was 1,369 students.
The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is pictured on April 25, 2019. (Getty Images)
Conductors of the poll also asked students how comfortable they were expressing their political beliefs.
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Nearly 72% of “very or somewhat conservative” students are afraid to share their opinions in social settings, while only 40.2% of their “somewhat liberal or progressive” counterparts say the same. About 37% of “very liberal or progressive” students say the same.
The majority of “very or somewhat conservative” students, 57.5% in total, said they are uncomfortable sharing their political opinions in class, a stark contrast to only 21.1% of “somewhat liberal or progressive” students and 26% of “very liberal or progressive” students who feel the same.
Protesters rally at Brown University in 2024. ( Joseph Prezioso / AFP)
The poll’s sample size for the question about expressing political opinions was 1,364 students.
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Notably, about 70% of Brown students said it is important that their political views align with the views of their friends.
The poll also asked students about sexual orientation. When broken down by class, the results show that members of the class of 2029 identify as something other than straight at a 10.7% higher rate than students in the class of 2026. More than 44% of first-year students say they are not straight, while 33.7% of students set to graduate in the spring said the same.
People relax on a lawn on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on April 25, 2019. (Getty Images)
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Only 60.5% of students at Brown identify as straight, a vastly lower proportion than the public at large. By comparison, a Gallup poll released earlier this year found that more than 90% of Americans identify as straight.
Brown did not return a request for comment.