Deciding in which house on campus to live next year is a challenge facing current Stanford students. The front page story “Race-based Dorms Receive Mixed Reviews” by Deputy Editor Navin Kadaba is a salient investigative news piece which addresses one aspect of the draw process. But an even more momentous decision confronts members of the class of 2009 – deciding which college to call home next year.

For many prospective freshmen, this decision boils down to a few key questions. Where will I find a community and feel most happy? Where will I get the best academic education and set myself up for success later in life? While the assumptions embedded in these questions are in many ways highly personal, I would like to make the case for why Stanford should be your answer to these questions, especially (but not only) if you are a conservative.

With respect to education, Stanford is truly unbeatable and not just in one subject – in every subject. The professors in the schools of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering, Earth Sciences, Business, Law, Medicine, and Education are consistently superb. I mention both undergraduate and graduate programs to highlight the important synergy between the two. For example, one of my best advisors freshman year was a Graduate Student in the Business School who was pursing a Ph.D. in Economics. My major advisor, a health economics professor, has an M.D. and Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford. Even if you do not think you will have many encounters with some of the graduate schools, it is important to realize that there are positive externalities from having successful schools and departments in all fields. The benefits overflow in subtle but important ways.

The course offerings here are enormous. Stanford definitely has its share of politicized courses with their multicultural dogma. But the courses which form a foundation in Western Civilization, although not mandatory, are readily available for the taking.

Education is not confined to the classroom. The proverbial late-night discussions and absorbing dinner table conversations with your friends are certainly part of what I mean. I also consider the cornucopia of cool programs sponsored by various student organizations to be part of the educational experience. For example, a little over a week ago I attended talks by James Lilly, former U.S. ambassador to China, sponsored by the Forum for American-Chinese Exchange at Stanford; Abbas Milani, an Iran scholar, sponsored by the Persian Student Association; L. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, sponsored by the ASSU Speakers Bureau and Stanford in Government; and Daniel Yoo, Lt. Col. of the U.S. Marine Corps who served in Afghanistan and is currently a National Security Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

The last event was one of a weekly series called “Pizza and Politics,” which The Stanford Review sponsors in conjunction with the Hoover Institution. I have been participating in these lunches since I was a freshman, and I have been amazingly fortunate to have shared meals with the likes of Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell.

The Stanford Review has been called “Stanford’s Conservative Voice” and is a publication that strives to promote thoughtful dialogue about current affairs, especially pertaining to campus events. The Review is the nucleus of conservative ideas on campus for students. If you are a conservative looking for community, then The Review is your answer. If you are looking for an education, regardless of your political philosophy, then The Review is also your answer.

Stanford is undoubtedly a liberal campus, but this reality is no reason for conservatives to shy away. A cursory inspection of alternative institutions of higher education is enough to make you realize that virtually all of them are suffused with a liberal orthodoxy. When Hoover Fellow Dinesh D’Souza spoke at Stanford last year, he called on college conservatives to be “philosophically conservative, but temperamentally more radical – to disrupt, subvert, and challenge the liberalism.” D’Souza recalled some advice he heard as an undergraduate at Dartmouth , that the “liberal sheep on college campuses must not graze unmolested.” If you are a conservative, you can embrace Stanford as your home despite the sheep. I hope you choose Stanford. To echo the sentiments of my colleague Ryan Tracey, know that you will always have a friend in The Stanford Review. Conservatives deserve the best, and Stanford University is simply the best.

Fiat Lux!

Ben Guthrie

Editor-in-Chief