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Santa Clara University

Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara University reads 0.6 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

Santa Clara University: 66.9 (likely range 65.7 to 68.2) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

5%Far left92–100

38%Left75–91

41%Center-left59–74

12%Center42–58

3%Center-right26–41

<1%Right9–25

1%Far right0–8

221 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

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

Furthest-left subjects

ENGL 102 · Decolonial Feminist Epistemologies100

English & Comparative Literature

Decolonial Feminist Epistemologies engages with Third World and emerging Fourth Wave feminist actions and struggles. In this course we therefore look to past feminist movements and expressions, to understand the present, and carve a vision…

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HIST 116 · Visions of Abolition100

History

Abolition has a deep and rich history that originates in slavery abolition and connects to contemporary demands to abolish the prison industrial complex, policing, and ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). But calls for abolition…

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HIST 155 · African American Pursuit of Freedom100

History

The course covers various strategies African Americans used to attain freedom. These include slave rebellions, moral suasion for the Abolitionist movement, pamphleteering and political tracts by Black intellectuals and their impact on…

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Furthest-right subjects

HIST 122 · The Holocaust0

History

This course examines the persecution and mass murder of Jews in Nazi Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe from 1933-1945. Although the mass murder of European Jewry will be a main focus, we will also discuss programs of discrimination,…

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HIST 171 · The New Nation: U.S. From Hamilton to Jackson0

History

An examination of the social and political history of the United States during the half-century following the American Revolution. Course topics will include: the creation of the American republic; social and economic changes since the…

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NTHS 4800 · EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND ENSLAVEMENT0

Religious Studies

This seminar offers a historical and theological investigation of enslavement in the Roman Mediterranean, with a particular focus on the entanglement of early Christianity with the practices and ideologies of Roman enslavement. Students…

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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 65.7 to 68.2; 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.

Santa Clara University by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
History	24.7%	158	view
English & Comparative Literature	20.4%	167	view
Sociology	18.8%	64	view
Religious Studies	8.7%	172	view
Anthropology	8.3%	48	view
Psychology	3.8%	53	view
Philosophy	3.5%	85	view
Art & Art History	2.3%	87	view
Political Science	2.1%	47	view
Economics	0%	62	view

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

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
Santa Clara University	mean_bias_score	66.9	65.7 – 68.2	943	112
All 100 schools	mean_bias_score	67.5	67.4 – 67.7	124,290	10,124

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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