This post is part of CampusReform.org's guide to the nation's top 100 colleges as ranked by US News and World Report. Each day, CampusReform.org profiles a different college, examines its political climate, and offers items of interest to conservative students, parents, and alumni. Click here to see the full list of college profiles.
Lehigh University is a private university best known for its programs in business and engineering. The school, founded in 1865, enrolled 4,856 undergraduates and employed 443 faculty members in the 2009-2010 school year. It is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in a region known as the Lehigh Valley.
Campus Life
There are six political student organizations at Lehigh of which four are liberal and two are conservative.
The four left-leaning groups are the College Democrats, Progressive Student Alliance, Green Action, and Spectrum.The two right-leaning groups are the College Republicans and The Lehigh Patriot, an independent conservative newspaper affiliated with CampusReform.org's Campus Leadership Program, which offers groups advice, assistance, and many kinds of support.Both conservative groups have been active on campus. The Lehigh Patriot, with help from the Leadership Institute, brought conservative activist David Horowitz to speak about Islamofacism. The College Republicans have also hosted former Attorney General John Ashcroft at Lehigh.
Faculty
A study of presidential campaign contributions in the 2008 election shows an overwhelmingly liberal bias among the faculty at Lehigh University. According to campaign finance data from OpenSecrets.org, 95% of contributing Lehigh faculty gave to Democratic candidates and just 5% to Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential election.
