I'm a conservative student and the No. 1 question I get is: 'How do I survive leftist professors?'
Something is deeply broken in American higher education when students feel they must hide their beliefs, or worse, pretend to be liberals, just to survive a class. And as a college freshman, I hear this from my own friends every single week.
It’s not hypothetical for me, it’s the daily reality of the people I sit next to in the dining hall, study with, in the library, and walk past on the way to class.
When I did Q&As on ten different campuses this semester, before students asked me about geopolitics, foreign aid, the election, or even the cost of living, they all asked the same thing first: "How do I survive college as a conservative?" Every campus. Every crowd. Every time. That tells you everything you need to know about the climate students are facing.
Yet that is exactly what’s happening on campuses across the country, and the latest example out of the University of Oklahoma is impossible to ignore.
A medical student at the university, Samantha Fulneck, recently failed an opinion-based assignment because she quoted the Bible in her essay on gender roles. The teaching assistant, a self-identified transgender instructor, marked her down not because her work lacked structure or clarity, but because her reasoning came from a worldview the professor didn’t personally accept. And this is exactly the kind of thing students pulled me aside to tell me about at every single school I visited, stories whispered quietly, like they were confessing something dangerous, because that’s how it feels to them.
Let’s be very clear: If your grade depends on agreeing with your professor, the class isn’t about education — it’s about indoctrination.
But this incident isn’t just about one professor or one school. It’s a symptom of a culture that has taken root in academia over the last decade — one that demands uniformity, punishes dissent and treats Christian or conservative students as unwelcome intruders in their own classrooms. On multiple campuses, students told me they write two versions of every essay, the real one they believe then the "safe" one they actually turn in. Others told me they avoid certain majors entirely because they know disagreement isn’t allowed. These aren’t isolated fears; they’re patterns. And I hear them in red states, blue states, big universities and tiny private colleges alike.
And nobody should have to pay thousands of dollars in tuition just to be told their beliefs are unacceptable.
The left loves to use phrases like "diversity" and "inclusion," but those words somehow never apply to diversity of thought or inclusion of faith. You can quote Freud, Foucault, or the latest TikTok influencer in your paper, but bring in Scripture, and suddenly you’ve committed an academic sin. Students told me they’ve had professors praise "open dialogue" on the first day of class, only to spend the rest of the semester making it clear which opinions will cost them their grade.
The irony is almost too rich to ignore: Universities that preach tolerance have somehow become the least tolerant places in American life.
The purpose of education used to be to equip students to think critically, debate honestly, and evaluate competing ideas. Today, too many classrooms function like echo chambers where disagreement is treated as a threat, not an opportunity for honest conversation.
And for Christian and conservative students, the message is loud and clear: Conform or be punished.
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I watched this play out in real time. At one campus where I spoke, a student waited until everyone else had left just to whisper, "What do I say when my professor mocks Christianity?"
At another, a student told me their professor openly admits to grading conservatives more harshly because of our "dangerous worldview". These aren’t "Internet stories." These are real kids, with real fears, looking for permission to breathe.
Let’s stop pretending this is coming from "educators."
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These are activists wearing professor badges.
Many universities have abandoned the idea that a classroom is a marketplace of ideas. Instead, they treat it as a training ground for ideological alignment. Students aren’t encouraged to ask questions; they’re expected to memorize the "correct" answers. And if those answers conflict with their faith, their upbringing, their moral framework, or even basic common sense? Too bad. Students told me they’ve learned to read the room before they speak, to scan for who’s listening, to choose their words cautiously, not because they lack conviction, but because they know the wrong sentence can follow them for four years.
But here’s the most important part: Students see it. They feel it. And they’re tired of it.
Young people today are more aware of double standards than ever. They can see when criticism is selective, when biases are obvious, and when the person grading their paper cares more about politics than teaching. And when a student gets failed for citing the Bible in an opinion essay, the bias isn’t subtle. It’s a billboard. The result? Silence, fear, and self-censorship.
And that’s exactly what many professors want.
If students are intimidated into silence, the activist-educator never has to defend their ideas. They never have to justify their assumptions. They never have to engage in real debate.
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The easiest classroom to control is the one where the conservative students have already learned to keep their heads down.
But that silence comes at a cost, not only for students, but for the integrity of academia itself. When only one viewpoint is allowed, education becomes propaganda. When students stop asking hard questions, learning stops entirely. And when professors punish religious or political identity, they aren’t just breaking trust, they’re breaking the very purpose of their profession. And that cost is exactly why students kept lining up after my events, not for selfies, but for reassurance. Reassurance that they’re not crazy, not alone, and not wrong for refusing to surrender their beliefs.
The solution isn’t complicated.
It doesn’t require federal investigations or massive new bureaucracies.
It just requires courage.
Sunlight fixes this.
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Exposure fixes this.
Young people refusing to roll over fixes this.
Every time a story like the OU case goes public, it forces universities to confront what they’ve allowed to fester. Administrators don’t change because they suddenly rediscover their moral compass. They change because parents start asking questions, donors start demanding accountability and lawmakers begin paying attention.
The more students tell their stories, the harder it becomes for universities to hide behind empty slogans about inclusion. Because nothing reveals hypocrisy faster than a Christian student getting failed for having a belief rooted in Scripture.
Students shouldn’t have to pretend to be liberals just to pass a class. They shouldn’t feel pressured to rewrite their faith to avoid offending a professor. They shouldn’t have to choose between truth and a GPA. And they certainly shouldn’t be punished for believing something that billions of people across the globe believe, and have believed for thousands of years.
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It’s time for students, especially conservative and Christian students, to stand firm. Not with anger, not with outrage, but with clarity, confidence, and conviction.
Because the moment you force a student to deny their beliefs in exchange for a passing grade, you haven’t educated them.
You’ve coerced them.
And coercion has no place in a classroom.
If universities truly care about academic excellence, genuine diversity, and preparing young people for the world they’re about to lead, then it’s time for them to practice the tolerance they preach.
Until then, sunlight will continue to expose what’s happening behind closed doors, and students must continue to refuse to roll over.
