Melbourne Univeristy politics

[Williamwillis]

Hello everyone,

Got into Melbourne for 2017 and just wondering how open the uni students, professors and administration are to conservative viewpoints and Christians. I'm thinking keep my head down and pretend I'm a communist based on the shit you hear about universities in general. Also is there a club for conservative thinkers ? Mwah

[Glasses]

Hello everyone,

Got into Melbourne for 2017 and just wondering how open the uni students, professors and administration are to conservative viewpoints and Christians. I'm thinking keep my head down and pretend I'm a communist based on the shit you hear about universities in general. Also is there a club for conservative thinkers ? Mwah

Can't say that much about the professors and administration - but I'm doubtful they're going to chase you with pitchforks if you identify as being on the right end of the political spectrum; plus, you'll probably find that all of the different staff members and students have varying opinions and political beliefs.

Lastly, this may help https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/getinvolved/clubs/listing/

[spectroscopy]

Hello everyone,

Got into Melbourne for 2017 and just wondering how open the uni students, professors and administration are to conservative viewpoints and Christians. I'm thinking keep my head down and pretend I'm a communist based on the shit you hear about universities in general. Also is there a club for conservative thinkers ? Mwah

will be fine. the liberal club at melbourne uni is very large and very friendly. they arent as 'in your face' as the socialist alternative nor as visible as any of the left wing groups but they definitely exist and are quite strong. furthermore the professors are pretty split between left and right wing. in commerce they teach us both sides of the political spectrum although in economics when you learn about efficiency in the free market etc. naturally the political leanings of the professors (usually to the right) come out, although everyone is still very respectful.

even the labour student group and stuff at uni are fine. pretty much everyone and all of the clubs at uni are perfectly pleasant with everyone co-existing peacefully, its mostly the socialist alternative that can get annoying. but at melbourne they are VERY mild compared to say monash where they aggressively stop people and try to proliferate their ideas. at melbourne they dont stop you or harass you or anything, if you walk past them and pretend they dont exist you'll be fine, its only when you stop to talk to them they start talking to you about stuff but even then they are cool.

also in terms of the christian union - they are massive at melbourne. you see their chalk writings on the ground all over campus particualrly on south lawn advertising free food and things like that. they are very friendly people and not pushy at all and have lots of free food. i went with 2 of my friends who are both sikhs and wear turbans and absolutely pigged out on free christian union food and they were more than happy to hang out with us and play ping pong and the topic of religion barely even came up. this is reflective of most of my interactions with them and I have to say as someone who is not very religious and does not like religion being pushed onto people it is good to see the clubs at melbourne uni operate in a very nice way - including the jewish club and islamic society too. theyre never out their pushing their religion, just telling you about their sausage sizzles etc.
however sometimes at the pedestrian crossing at university square you sometimes get mormons standing their trying to spread the word however i dont think they are affiliated with the uni and people usually dont give them any time of the day

have fun at uni!

[dankfrank420]

Lol you won't 'accidentally' be pushed into university politics, for all the discussion around the Melbourne Uni socialist alternative I've never noticed anything like that myself. Sure they might try to hand out a few fliers or ask you to sign something but they aren't aggressive at all and will leave you 100% alone if you just say no thanks. All politics societies are pretty polite and courteous, its just an excuse for people to get together and drink anyways.

I'm thinking keep my head down and pretend I'm a communist based on the shit you hear about universities in general.

The vast majority of uni students don't care about politics, dunno where you heard about this.

[mahler004]

Hello everyone,

Got into Melbourne for 2017 and just wondering how open the uni students, professors and administration are to conservative viewpoints and Christians. I'm thinking keep my head down and pretend I'm a communist based on the shit you hear about universities in general. Also is there a club for conservative thinkers ? Mwah

Most academics are moderate-to-center-left (speaking very broadly,) but they won't hound people who are conservative. The worst you might get is some gentle ribbing (which I'd argue is inappropriate still, but different topic for different day). Most of my politics lecturers (if that's what you're planning on studying) went out of their way to not show an open partisan/ideological bias, with various degrees of success. You haven't mentioned what you're studying, but if you're studying something that's not related to politics, it's simply not going to be a subject.

Of course, if you take some of the gender studies subjects, it's not really surprising that the people running that might be Marxists. Equally, if you take economics subjects, not surprising when the people running are supporters of free trade and open markets.

Lol you won't 'accidentally' be pushed into university politics, for all the discussion around the Melbourne Uni socialist alternative I've never noticed anything like that myself. Sure they might try to hand out a few fliers or ask you to sign something but they aren't aggressive at all and will leave you 100% alone if you just say no thanks. All politics societies are pretty polite and courteous, its just an excuse for people to get together and drink anyways.

The Socialist Alternative are annoying, but that's about it - from what I've heard, they're less aggressive then their Monash and RMIT counterparts. Ignore them, and don't engage.