<Actually, the mentality around CMU and other 'technical elite' universities is quite conservative. The 'left' here is a very small and very vocal minority that appears larger than it really is. This is one of those myths like the 'liberal' media or 'leftist science'. The Faculty in SOME fields tend to be leftists, and in some fields it is split right down the middle. Some fields lean distinctively to the right, even at my 'East coast liberal' institution.

Bullshit. Assuming you're talking about Carnegie Mellon, I'll eat my hat if you can find ten faculty members that will admit to being Republican, other than in a dark alley with no one else around. Hell, I bet it would take you all afternoon to find two. There are damn few at Stanford here, at least outside the walls of the Hoover Institution, which the campus has been trying to kick out for years.

The Luntz survey of Ivy League professors found 6 percent that were willing to call themselves conservative, and 3 percent willing to admit to being Republicans. For the record, the numbers are almost the same for those working in the media (6 percent conservative, 4 percent Republican.)

I know what are myths, and what are not. I've been at this for a long time.