The College Fix

Millersville University student Kaytee Moyer does not debate all the leftist dogma coming from her professors, but once in while a professor says something so over the top, she is compelled to speak up.

That happened recently in her American Political Theory class, when her professor told students that Republicans are fielding only “old white men” in the 2016 presidential race.

Shocked at such a blatant misrepresentation of facts, Moyer said she proceeded to list the names of the GOP presidential candidates, such as Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, to contradict her professor’s broad generalization.

In an interview with The College Fix, Moyer said her professor’s response was that “Ted Cruz isn’t Hispanic enough.”

This is just one example of many the 25-year-old government and political affairs major said she has faced over the years at the rural campus in southern Pennsylvania.

Moyer, who declined to say the professor’s name as she is still enrolled in the class, told The College Fix in an interview that she has had this particular scholar for two other classes and the “Cruz isn’t Hispanic enough” comment is just one example of several showcasing the educator’s bias.

During her first year at Millersville, the same professor began the semester by asking students why America is exceptional. According to Moyer, students responded with statements such as “America is great because it was founded on the principles of ‘liberty and justice for all.'” But the professor then shot all of the students’ answers down, Moyer said.

The professor retorted with an answer similar to “we may have written equality into our Constitution, but do we treat people equally?” And if someone gave an example of the freedom that characterizes America, Moyer said her professor would cite a Scandinavian country with a higher freedom index.

During that same year, Moyer also faced biased teachers in other classes, notably one called Introduction to Geography.

“We were talking about fracking, and I know that it is a controversial issue in Pennsylvania, but my professor was just trashing fracking and all of the environmental harm that it does. I raised my hand and asked the professor to talk about the positives of fracking, and he said that there are none,” Moyer said.

That’s when Moyer had had enough.

“I decided that I would never let that happen again,” she added. “I wouldn’t ever let my professor say that America isn’t exceptional without having a retort. I wanted to empower myself by being educated on the issues so that I could stand up for conservative principles.”

As for her anti-fracking professor, she said “I knew he was wrong, but I didn’t know how to respond. I took it upon myself to learn a lot about natural gas and fracking, and the topics discussed in my political theory class, so that I can respond intelligently to my professors when they are only giving one side of the story.”

Moyer immediately started to research conservative groups that could help with other topics as well. She signed up for seminars and conferences, and told The College Fix that she attended six different political seminars and conferences during the subsequent summer.

“I attended a week long economic seminar at the Institute For Humane Studies, trained with Students For Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty on campus activism, and attended the Leadership Institute’s Youth Leadership School,” she said. “I started submerging myself in current events, first only reading conservative websites, such as The Blaze and Drudge Report, then branching out to the New York Times and Washington Post.”

“I stocked my bookshelf with as many politically related books I could get my hands on: The Road To Serfdom, Economics in One Lesson, Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff, The Federalist papers. I became an avid listener of conservative talk radio, the only place that was covering some of the topics in which I was interested.”

“Around this time, I also heard Carly Fiorina speak for the first time,” she added. “She has been a huge inspiration for me as a female conservative. I think that conservative females articulate our message in such a unique way, and hearing her elaborate on conservatism was extremely impactful. I no longer believed that rhetoric that there was something wrong or negative about myself being a female conservative.”

Today, Moyer, a senior expecting to graduate this December, said she is not afraid to speak up. And a lot of her fellow students have approached her, thanking her for opening up the classroom to different opinions.

“I hear from a lot of my friends on campus that there is bias in the classroom,” Moyer stated. “I think the answer is a conservative one: you need to individually educate yourself so that you know when what you are being taught isn’t correct or is a one-sided opinion.”

Moyer isn’t just tackling bias inside the classroom.

In October, she held a one-woman protest against Planned Parenthood at the busiest intersection on Millerville’s campus, during which she handed out flyers arguing that Planned Parenthood should lose its taxpayer funding. She also pinned price tags to her body, highlighting the prices that Planned Parenthood has charged for fetal tissue.

Moyer said she was “nervous out of her mind to do it” because her four friends who had previously agreed to help backed out the night before it was scheduled to occur. In the end, she said it felt great to stand up for what she believes, even if she did so alone. She had been inspired by the Planned Parenthood video scandal.

“[I’d] never cared about abortion and never talked about abortion, but these videos opened my mind to Planned Parenthood’s practices, and I knew I had to do something,” she told The Fix.

Despite receiving national media attention for her demonstration, Moyer said she was disappointed that her school newspaper didn’t think her protest was newsworthy.

“I just really wanted to start a conversation on my campus,” Moyer said.

After graduation, Moyer plans to pursue political communications. She is interested in Pennsylvania politics, and said she hopes to be a leading voice for young conservatives in her state.

Her advice for frustrated conservative undergrads?

“The power lies within you as an individual, so if you are unhappy that you have a biased professor–debate them with facts–and don’t get emotional,” Moyer said. “Learn as much as you can and don’t get down on yourself when you stand up for your beliefs.”

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