Conservative website CampusReform.org recently labeled Ohio State’s Columbus campus overwhelmingly liberal, going so far as to say, “Conservatives should beware.”

Emily Cochran, CampusReform.org’s regional field coordinator for the Great Lakes region, evaluated OSU’s political bias and authored the website’s review, which is meant to raise awareness in the conservative community.

OSU political science professor Herbert Weisberg discovered some flaws with her assessment.

“We want to help support conservative students on their campuses,” Cochran said.

Cochran began her review with a brief summary of OSU’s history before analyzing the politically motivated student groups on campus.

“First, I looked at the list of registered student organizations and looked at whether they leaned toward the left or the right,” Cochran said.

Of the nearly 1,000 student organizations at OSU, Cochran identified 150 that had political agendas and 40 that had clear partisan purposes.

“Of those with a clear partisan purpose, 31 are liberal and nine are conservative or libertarian,” Cochran’s review said.

Cochran said she did not compare the groups based on their size or how active they were.

Weisberg, said the data was insufficient to prove a political imbalance in the student organizations.

“Minimally, they should have looked to see how big the groups were,” Weisberg said, “and minimally, they should have looked to see which groups were active and which groups were not active.”

Next, Cochran looked at donations OSU faculty and staff members made to political campaigns during the 2008 presidential election. She found that out of 157 monetary contributions made by OSU non-student employees during that election, 137 were donated to Democratic candidates and 20 were donated to Republicans.

Weisberg said this was not an accurate portrayal of the political leanings of OSU faculty and staff.

“That would be one way to show how they felt about the 2008 campaigns, and who felt intense enough to want to donate to a candidate one way or another,” Weisberg said. “A big question would be what percent of the campus donated. I would assume most professors didn’t donate to either side, which takes a lot away from that type of evidence.”

Not including student employees, OSU had more than 26,800 faculty and staff members in autumn 2008, according to the Office of Human Resources. Less than 1 percent of all OSU faculty and staff members donated to political campaigns in the 2008 presidential election, which means only a little more than half of 1 percent of OSU faculty and staff monetarily supported a democrat in the 2008 presidential election.

“To call the campus liberal on the basis of donations would be deceptive,” Weisberg said.

Cochran evaluated the OSU Board of Trustees in a similar manner, finding that a majority of the money donated by the board went to Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential election.

The final section of Cochran’s report cited the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s review of OSU.

The foundation classified OSU as a red-light university, meaning it “has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”

The policies referenced on the foundation’s website were OSU’s sexual harassment policy and the section of the residence hall handbook that outlines the residents’ rights and protects them from discriminatory intimidation.

Ben Hill, a 2010 OSU alumnus, said he has very traditional, conservative values but that he faced no politically related issues during his four years at OSU.

“I remember specific classes where it was very obvious what the teachers’ opinions were, but I don’t think that ever hindered me from giving my opinion, or anyone else for that matter,” Hill said. “I probably had one, maybe two classes per year where I really felt that way, but I don’t ever remember there being a time when that was an issue.”

Hill said his teachers encouraged a free flow of ideas in the classroom.

“I always felt like my opinions were respected, and I know I have some pretty strong views that are contrary to liberal views,” Hill said. “I don’t really think people are being stifled and I don’t think that they should be complaining about it … just speak louder.”

Cochran estimated 90 percent of the campuses CampusReform.org has reviewed are liberal.