Bureau of Disruption

All schools · Liberal arts college

Colgate University

Colgate University's course descriptions average 66.9 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Colgate University reads 0.7 points further right.

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Colgate University: 66.9 (likely range 65.1 to 68.7) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

1%Far left92–100
19%Left75–91
71%Center-left59–74
8%Center42–58
1%Center-right26–41
0%Right9–25
0%Far right0–8
93 plotted courses (the ones with a political framing). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right.

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Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest left

ALST 312 · Gender, Race and Punishment: Toward an Inclusive History of the American Carceral State100

Ethnic & African American Studies

An interdisciplinary course exploring the complex history of the mass incarceration of African American girls and women within the U.S. penal system. Students investigate the complexities of the U.S. carceral state while unearthing the…

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LGBT 241 · Queering Education90

Ethnic & African American Studies

LGBTQ youth have traditionally been marginalized in schools. K-12 education offers few curricular and institutional spaces where queer identities are affirmed and queer voices are heard. From sex education to the prom, most schools and…

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WGSS 312 · Gender, Race and Punishment: Toward an Inclusive History of the American Carceral State90

Women's & Gender Studies

An interdisciplinary course that explores the complex history of the mass incarceration of African American girls and women within the U.S. penal system. Students will investigate the complexities of the U.S. carceral state while unearthing…

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Furthest right

POSC 385 · Modernity and its Conservative Critics38

Political Science

What is wrong with the modern world, especially with the political culture of liberal and progressive intellectual elites? Such questions are explored by studying the radical critique of modernity offered by philosophical, classical, and…

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Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 65.1 to 68.7; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

  • Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
  • Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.
Colgate University by department (share of courses described from the left)
DepartmentLeft-framed shareCourses
Women's & Gender Studies70%10view
Ethnic & African American Studies44.3%61view
Sociology26.3%38view
History22.2%99view
Anthropology21.2%33view
English & Comparative Literature9.4%85view
Religious Studies9.3%54view
Psychology4.5%44view
Philosophy2.8%36view
Political Science2.3%86view
Economics1.8%56view
Art & Art History0%58view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method
NameMetricValue95% intervalnscored
Colgate Universitymean_bias_score66.965.1 – 68.766093
All 100 schoolsmean_bias_score67.567.4 – 67.7124,29010,124
Formula
SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval
normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot
gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats
Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

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