Republican students at the University of Colorado-Boulder recently filed complaints that UC professors are indoctrinating students with left wing beliefs. Rep. State Senate President John Andrews is pushing a bill to protect the rights of conservative students on campus. The bill, he claims, has the goal of creating a fair environment, but many faculty members at UC feel the bill is intended to bolster conservative values into the classroom.

The University of Wisconsin, like UC-Boulder, is considered by many to be a liberal-minded campus.

When asked if they felt professors at Madison were guilty of indoctrinating students, Wisconsin conservatives did not uniformly share the concerns of their colleagues in Colorado, and drew a distinction between expressing an opinion and indoctrinating.

“Obviously, the great majority of students and faculty members in Madison are liberal, but I don’t think indoctrination is really an issue here,” Chairman of Wisconsin College Republicans Frank Harris said. “The fact that some professors voice liberal opinions doesn’t really affect the overall learning environment. A problem arises if the content of the course becomes limited to a professor’s opinions, but the expression of opinions by a professor doesn’t do that.”

Andrews first proposed the bill in response to the students’ growing concerns. “Students… feel subtly pressured against giving free expression to their political and religious beliefs. They are afraid their grades or their career will suffer if they don’t keep a lid on their patriotism or their faith,” Andrews said in a written statement.

In Wisconsin, it appears many conservatives, while acknowledging the overwhelmingly liberal environment found in Madison, do not share these fears or feel the need for a bill, Harris said.

“If a professor were to bash a conservative viewpoint, it would not deter me, and I would feel comfortable giving my own viewpoint. Students should not be the puppets of their professors,” Harris said, adding such a bill could complicate many issues. “College is a marketplace of ideas, which is great, and students should not feel threatened by the beliefs of their professors.”

UW sophomore Katie Wolf considers herself a moderate conservative and does not feel her past professors have emphasized their personal beliefs in class.

“I have never felt that professors in Madison were imposing their views on me. I’ve been in a lot of science courses, in which evolution is taught, but I don’t think that’s an issue. People in Madison express their beliefs freely and I feel that I can express my beliefs as well.”