Something is deeply broken in American higher education when students feel like they have to hide their beliefs, or worse, pretend to be liberals, just to survive a class. And as a freshman, I hear this every week from my own friends.
For me, it’s not hypothetical, 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 my way to class.
When I did Q&As on ten different campuses this semester, before students asked me about geopolitics, foreign aid, the elections, or even the cost of living, they all asked the same thing first: “How do I survive college as a conservative?” Every campus. Any crowd. Every time. That tells you everything you need to know about the climate students face.
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Yet that’s exactly what’s happening on campuses across the country, and the latest example from the University of Oklahoma is impossible to ignore.
A university medical student, 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, judged her not because her work lacked structure or clarity, but because her reasoning stemmed from a worldview that the professor personally did not accept. And these are exactly the kinds of things that students at every school I’ve visited have pulled me aside to tell me about them, stories whispered under their breath, as if they were confessing something dangerous, because that’s what it feels like to them.
Let’s be very clear: if your grade depends on agreeing with your professor, the class is not about education – it is about indoctrination.
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But this incident is not just about one professor or one school. It’s a symptom of a culture that has taken root in academia over the past decade—a culture that demands uniformity, punishes dissent, and treats Christian or conservative students as unwanted intruders in their own classrooms. On multiple campuses, students told me that they write two versions of every essay: the real version they believe in, and then the “safe” version that they actually turn in. Others told me that they avoid certain majors completely because they know disagreements are not allowed. These are not isolated fears, they are patterns. And I hear them in red states, blue states, big universities and small private colleges alike.
And no one should have to pay thousands of dollars in tuition just to be told their beliefs are unacceptable.
OU student Samantha Fulnecky at the Oklahoma Memorial Union, Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
The left likes to use phrases like “diversity” and “inclusion,” but somehow those words never apply to diversity of thought or belief. You can quote Freud, Foucault or the latest TikTok influencer in your article, but bring in the Bible and suddenly you have committed an academic sin. Students told me that professors praised “open dialogue” on the first day of class, only to spend the rest of the semester making it clear which opinions would cost them their grade.
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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 as echo chambers where disagreements are treated as a threat and 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 game in real time. On 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 point, a student told me that their professor openly admits to judging conservatives more harshly because of our “dangerous worldview.” These are not ‘internet stories’. These are real children, with real fears, looking for permission to breathe.
Let’s stop pretending this comes from “educators.”
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These are activists wearing professor badges.
Many universities have abandoned the idea that a classroom is a marketplace for ideas. Instead, they see it as a training ground for ideological alignment. Students are not encouraged to ask questions; They are expected to remember the ‘correct’ answers. What if those answers conflict with their faith, their upbringing, their moral framework or even their common sense? Shame. Students told me that they have learned to read the room before they speak, to scan who is listening, to choose their words carefully, not because they lack conviction, but because they know that the wrong sentence can follow them for four years.
But here’s the important thing: students see it. They feel it. And they’re tired of it.
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Young people today are more aware of double standards than ever. They can tell when criticism is selective, when biases are obvious, and when the person reviewing their paper cares more about politics than teaching. And when a student is rejected for quoting the Bible in an op-ed, the bias is not subtle. It’s a billboard. The results? Silence, fear and self-censorship.
And that is exactly what many professors want.
When 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 get into a 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 to students, but to the integrity of academia itself. When only one point of view is allowed, education becomes propaganda. When students stop asking difficult questions, learning stops completely. And when professors sanction religious or political identity, they violate not only trust but also the purpose of their profession. And those costs are exactly why students kept lining up after my events, not for selfies, but for reassurance. The reassurance that they are not crazy, not alone, and not wrong for refusing to give up their beliefs.
The solution is not complicated.
It won’t require federal investigations or massive new bureaucracies.
It just takes courage.
Sunlight solves this.
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Lighting solves this.
Young people who refuse to roll over solve this.
Every time a story like the OU case becomes public, it forces universities to confront what they have allowed to fester. Directors do not change because they suddenly rediscover their moral compass. They’re changing because parents start asking questions, donors start demanding accountability, and lawmakers start paying attention.
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The more students tell their stories, the harder it becomes for universities to hide behind empty slogans about inclusion. Because nothing exposes hypocrisy faster than a Christian student being rejected for having a faith rooted in the Bible.
Students shouldn’t have to pretend to be liberals just to pass a class. They should not feel pressured to rewrite their beliefs to avoid offending a professor. They shouldn’t have to choose between the truth and a GPA. And they certainly should not be punished for believing something that billions of people around the world believe and have done for thousands of years.
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It is time for students, especially conservative and Christian students, to stand firm. Not with anger, not with indignation, but with clarity, confidence and conviction.
Because the moment you force a student to deny his or her faith in exchange for a passing grade, you have not trained him/her properly.
You forced them.
And coercion has no place in a classroom.
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If universities really care about academic excellence, true diversity and preparing young people for the world they will lead, then it is time for them to practice the tolerance they preach.
Until then, the sunlight will continue to reveal what happens behind closed doors, and students must continue to refuse to turn around.
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