Correction: A paragraph was added to represent the numbers for 2019 so far.
A Trump plaque adorned up on the wall, a pin of George W. Bush from 2004, and a poster of Ronald Reagan. Business professor Nick Carbonaro’s office may be a shrine to Republican presidents but it is also something out of place in a sea of liberalism at Long Beach City College.
Five days after the 2016 presidential election, Carbonaro donated money to Donald Trump. Since then, he is one of two full time professors at LBCC listed as a donor for a Republican cause, according to the Federal Election Commission.
“It’s not surprising at all,” Carbonaro said. “You should’ve seen the November after the 2016 election, it was like a ghost town here, everybody was depressed, all this stupid stuff.”
Listed alongside Carbonaro as donors for Republican causes are a full time math professor and a full time classified employee at LBCC.
Currently 96.5% of political donors who have listed LBCC as their employer, have donated to Democratic candidates/causes, these numbers do not include all of the faculty, administrators, or employees at LBCC.
In the 2016 presidential election year, LBCC employees, donated $5,185.00 to ActBlue, a nonprofit organization that enables Democrats to raise money on the internet.
For Republican causes, $288.84 was donated to Donald J. Trump for President Inc., and $250.00 for Marco Rubio for President.
To see the full list for 2016, see the graph below.
In 2019 so far, the most money donated goes to ActBlue again, with $4,437.57 in total.
In total in 2019, $8,216.52 has been given to Democratic causes so far. No employee at LBCC has given to any Republican causes this year.
To see the full list for 2019, see the graph below.
Because of such a Liberal environment at Long Beach City College, as well as colleges and universities across the U.S., concerns have risen over recent years on the impact it may have on students in and outside the classroom.
However, more concerns arise about such political leaning in colleges when specifically narrowing down in subject matters such as political science, economics, law, journalism, philosophy, history, and psychology.
In 2017, five professors gathered at Chapman University to discuss the appropriateness of discussing politics in the classroom.
During the discussion, the five professors, who all had various political leanings, challenged each others opinion on keeping political talk in or outside the classroom.
“Is it really free thinking if 97% of your professors think one way and they teach it that way,” Carbonaro said. “Are you really making a free choice?”
A 2016 study on faculty voter registration at 40 leading U.S. universities done by Econ Journal Watch, included 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic and 314 Republican, for an overall D:R ratio of 11.5:1
“People interested in ideological diversity or concerned about the errors of leftist outlooks—including students, parents, donors, and taxpayers—might find our results deeply troubling.,” the study stated.
“Faculty Voter Registration in Economics, History, Journalism, Law, and Psychology,” written by Mitchell Langbert, associate professor of business at Brooklyn College, Anthony J. Quain, a health economics solutions developer, and Daniel Klein, professor of economics at George Mason University and editor of Econ Journal Watch.
All authors described themselves in the paper as a dying academic class of “classical liberals,” generally opposed to “governmentalization.”
They refer to both the Democratic and Republican parties as “horrible,” but say that, when pushed, they usually favor a Republican political candidate over a Democrat.
“Students are made to agree,” Klein told the Viking. “I am not concerned with students understanding political sides. Professors misrepresent both sides.”
Last year at Cal State Long Beach, Turning Point USA held a seminar with founder and executive director Charlie Kirk. The event brought students on all sides of the political spectrum.
Long Beach Antifa launched a movement, “Unwelcome on Campus,” and called for others to oppose the Turning Point event.
Former president of Turning Point U.S.A. LBCC chapter, Daniel McCullough, told the Viking last year that, “They have every right to protest but it’s a little annoying if they’re trying to just disrupt the whole thing.”
McCullough, who is open about his political beliefs, hasn’t experienced any real uncomfortably during a class at LBCC but has witnessed former members of the LBCC chapter be harassed because of their political beliefs.
“When we brought Charlie Kirk to Cal State Long Beach, one of the people in my club, got confronted after asking some guy where the event was. He went and screamed at her face, called her a nazi and just started getting up in her face,” McCullough said.
“Eventually you get so used to it, being a conservative in any liberal area, you just learn to laugh it off.”
Turning point USA currently runs a website named Professor Watchlist, a website that exposes and documents college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.
In 2017, college Republicans said their request for a resolution reaffirming freedom of speech was turned down by Cal State Fullerton student government.
A year before the TPUSA event at CSULB, Hillary Clinton held a rally at Long Beach City College. In 2019, Bernie Sanders also held a rally at LBCC.
“I would never want the college to institute political diversity,” Carbonaro said.
