History Main / StrawmanU

* The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington -- does not assign grades to students at ''all'' in favor of "narrative evaluations,"[[note]]Despite the flack about "no grades," they're actually like the performance evaluations one would get at an office job.[[/note]] many of the courses offered are political in nature, and there are no "departments" like you'd see at other schools -- all classes are a form of "integrated studies" which approach a single issue from several different academic angles, with freshmen and seniors often in the same class. Professors are addressed by first name most of the time. The school operates an organic farm and a nonprofit vegetarian restaurant staffed and operated by unpaid volunteers who manage cooperatively.[[note]]Out of the 100-plus clubs on campus, only about five are not directly related to any left-wing political agenda. These are the clubs dealing with anime, tabletop gaming, and live-action role-playing. Geeks do well there.[[/note]] Briefly enjoyed national attention when a campus-wide protest over racial injustices, in which white students and faculty were pressured to stay off the campus for a day, prompted students to denounce certain faculty who opposed said protest (including then-biology professor Bret Weinstein[[note]]who would go on to become a right-wing public intellectual, most famous for his identification with the so-called "Intellectual Dark Web"[[/note]]), which devolved to the point that, reportedly, roving bands of armed students began searching the campus and surrounding area for dissenters. Pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie is among the college's alumni.

* The Technion (Haifa, Israel)

** Within Hogwarts, which is an AbsurdlyDividedSchool due to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_system house system]], Slytherin is treated as the Jim Jonestown house. Okay, on paper Slytherin is associated with ambition and strategy, but [[AmbitionIsEvil in practice]] Slytherin is seen as the home of bullying, [[FantasticCasteSystem elitist]] villains. (To be fair the other houses have their share of bad eggs too, and later in the series we meet some decent Slytherins.) Meanwhile, Ravenclaw House has more of a Sokal reputation, given that Ravenclaw students are selected for intelligence, though this can also take the form of eccentric outside-the-box thinkers like Luna Lovegood (and the occasional deluded egomaniac like Gilderoy Lockhart, who merely ''presents'' himself as talented). The other two houses are less associated with specific Strawman U tropes: Gryffindor is the {{badass}} house, while {{Hufflepuff|House}} is theoretically associated with loyalty and diligence but in practice is stereotyped (both InUniverse and among much of the fandom, despite giving us some decidedly cool characters like Cedric Diggory and Nymphadora Tonks) as the miscellaneous StrawLoser house.

** It's worth noting that UP's reputation—rightly or wrongly—of harbouring radical left-leaning nationalism, up to and including Communist thought, is an almost complete inversion of its own image in TheFifties and earlier, when ''the same university'' was held up as an example of rigorously conservative ''and pro-American'' ideological types. There were even powerful organisations allied with the Catholic hierarchy, and [[RedScare campus witch-hunts against left-leaning students and faculty]]—[[EaglelandOsmosis just like in the States]]! ItMakesSenseInContext though, because UP was originally founded by the Americans themselves, in the early days of the Philippines as a formal U.S. colonial possession, and in TheFifties, though a nominally "independent" nation, the Philippines was still far under the shadow of American influence that wanted an iron guarantee of its allies' loyalties—it was, after all, the Cold War.

Schools that have a stereotype of a very right-wing education.\\\

Anyone who has half a brain turns out to be a StepfordSmiler, HolierThanThou, AxCrazy, or [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Holier-Than-Thou Ax Crazy Stepford Smilers]]. The city council will be packed with oppressive right-wingers who want to eject anyone who dares to suggest toning any of this down. Being a historic university, its founding charter frequently comes with a long and detailed list of complex bylaws and regulations which just seem tailor-made for the Dean to abuse our plucky heroes. Whatever police or deans are there will often cover up for anyone committing heinous deeds - especially if it's the (very male) college sports team.

** Even the newer [=UCs=] aren't immune, as UC Irvine had an incident where the black students' club chained themselves together and marched into the student council meeting to protest a racist incident perpetrated by an Asian-American frat. That being said, UCLA has [[https://www.thefire.org/largest-ever-free-speech-survey-of-college-students-ranks-top-campuses-for-expression/ received praise]] for promoting free speech, averting a major part of the stereotype (especially since the source (FIRE) has more than a few right wing connections)[[note]]FIRE, often stereotyped as right-wing because of their free speech activism, is actually known for cases in which it has filed suits against both sides of the political aisle.[[/note]].

** UC Santa Barbara is [[NeverLiveItDown infamous]] for the fiery destruction of a Bank of America building, after [[https://livinghistory.as.ucsb.edu/2020/07/20/bank-of-america-burning/ a peaceful protest against the company spiraled into an all-out riot]]. Since then, it's become better known for its party scene than its politics, but it has cropped up at the forefront of national issues, specifically mass shootings and the incel movement with the 2014 Isla Vista shooting near the campus,[[note]]The killer wasn't a UCSB student, though he had taken courses at a nearby community college called Santa Barbara City College. [[AllGuysWantSororityWomen He did try to attack a UCSB sorority house (as he resented attractive women for not having sex with him)]], but he couldn't get in and subsequently started shooting random people around Isla Vista instead.[[/note]] and the housing crisis with plans to build Munger Hall[[note]]A "space-efficient" tower - intended to address the lack of housing available for its student body - that doesn't provide windows for any of its bedrooms.[[/note]] for this campus.

** any of the Seven Sisters--Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Radcliffe (assimilated by Harvard), and Vassar (now co-ed)--will suffice.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] an upcoming UsefulNotes/WiiU title about scarecrows, or a [[LeetLingo chatspeak]] version of saying that [[TheWarOnStraw a strawman]] [[ThisLoserIsYou is you]].

** Bard College (Episcopal Church) in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York is fairly left-wing, and has contributed to social justice campaigns, including a prison education campaign. It tends to be more famous for its alumni, which includes Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Music/SteelyDan and Adam Yauch of Music/TheBeastieBoys.

** Even the newer [=UCs=] aren't immune, as UC Irvine had an incident where the black students' club chained themselves together and marched into the student council meeting to protest a racist incident perpetrated by an Asian-American frat. That being said, UCLA has [[https://www.thefire.org/largest-ever-free-speech-survey-of-college-students-ranks-top-campuses-for-expression/ received praise]] for promoting free speech, averting a major part of the stereotype (especially since the source (FIRE) has more than a few right wing connections).

* The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington -- does not assign grades to students at ''all'' in favor of "narrative evaluations,"[[note]]Despite the flack about "no grades," they're actually like the performance evaluations one would get at an office job.[[/note]] many of the courses offered are political in nature, and there are no "departments" like you'd see at other schools -- all classes are a form of "integrated studies" which approach a single issue from several different academic angles, with freshmen and seniors often in the same class. Professors are addressed by first name most of the time. The school operates an organic farm and a nonprofit vegetarian restaurant staffed and operated by unpaid volunteers who manage cooperatively.[[note]]Out of the 100-plus clubs on campus, only about five are not directly related to any left-wing political agenda. These are the clubs dealing with anime, tabletop gaming, and live-action role-playing. Geeks do well there.[[/note]] Briefly enjoyed national attention when a campus-wide protest over racial injustices prompted students to denounce certain faculty who opposed said protest (including then-biology professor Bret Weinstein[[note]]who would go on to become a right-wing public intellectual, most famous for his identification with the so-called "Intellectual Dark Web"[[/note]]), which devolved to the point that, reportedly, roving bands of armed students began searching the campus and surrounding area for dissenters. Pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie is among the college's alumni.