This post is part of CampusReform.org's guide to the nation's top 100 colleges as ranked by US News and World Report. Throughout the series, CampusReform.org profiles a different college, examines its political climate, and offers items of interest to conservative students, parents, and alumni. Click here to see the full list of college profiles.
Brandeis University was founded as a private, Jewish-sponsored university in 1948. The school was named for Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, and maintains strong ties to the Jewish community. It is a relatively small university, nine miles outside of Boston, with around 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students.
Campus Life
Of the 13 political student groups, 11 are liberal and two are conservative.
The liberal groups are the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance; Brandeis Labor Coaliton; Fair Trade Brigade; Students for a Democratic Society; Students for Environmental Action; Democracy for America, which supports "progressive" candidates; Brandeis Veg*ns; Students for Justice in Palestine; Student Peace Alliance, which wants to create a cabinet-level US Department of Peace; Democracy for America; and a group called Liquid Latex, with the mission of "challeng[ing] social norms" by presenting shows in which models wear only liquid latex paint.
The conservative groups are the George Washington Club and the Brandeis Republicans.
Unsurprisingly, campus life is strongly biased to the left. Last fall, for example, Jordan Rothman, a Brandeis student, shared his story with CampusReform.org about how his John McCain for President stickers were vandalized by a liberal student in his dorm. The student received a verbal warning from the Department of Residence Life.
