TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — U.S. Senate Candidate Blake Masters hosted a roundtable discussion on indoctrination in public universities at the University of Arizona.
Students and graduates joined to share their opinions.
Students say they feel discouraged from sharing their conservative political perspectives.
“I got a lot of pushback, but it was mostly from professors,” said Ron Desouza, UArizona Political Science Graduate.
Masters talked students through their experiences, and says they should be able to speak their mind.
“It’s just really sad to me because the point of college is supposed to be to talk to people who disagree, you know, figure out what your ideas are, hone them, and sharpen your own mind,” he said.
Student Cameron Teel says she also felt push back. Her class visited the Tucson border patrol for an assignment. She says she was the only student to greet the border patrol and thank them.
“A lot of my peers really were kind of ostracizing me for that and didn’t understand the respect I still had for border patrol, because they view border patrol in a very negative light,” Teel said.
Pima County Democratic Party's director Miranda Lopez has a different perspective. She says indoctrination is a movement that welcomes groups with uncommon views.
“That tends to scare those people that are in those privileged groups and so they kind of default to claiming that this is indoctrination, and this is impeding my free speech,” she said.
Still, conservative students like Teel say change is needed.
“I think that if conservative students were willing to speak up more and have conversations with our professors, then we can make a lot of progress,” Teel said.
Masters says it’s important students get involved in the conversation.
“A lot of the problems that have been caused I think can only be solved by new generations coming in and taking a fresh look at these problems, so I want to get as many young people as active as possible,” said Masters.
Miranda Lopez says this is not a problem happening at universities.
“At universities, it’s almost the opposite,” said Lopez.
She says universities do not force people into a box in the way Republicans, like Masters, are suggesting.
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Reyna Preciado is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2022 after graduating Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Reyna by emailing reyna.preciado@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or Twitter.
