Somehow, the word "moderation" has been given a dismissive connotation, but it's really what defines the extremes. It's very rare that things can be defined in a black-and-white manner. Usually, there are shades of gray in between the two extremes. It seems now that Penn State has been enveloped in one of those unfortunate occasions where the middle ground's existence is being ignored. This largely reflects much of the direction of national partisan politics.

According to the Harvard Institute of Politics' survey of college students that has been the source of some tension recently, 27 percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats, while 31 percent identified themselves as Republicans. Since we all know that 27 + 31 = 100, we can tell that all college students are affiliated with one of our two major parties. But for those of us who don't choose to embrace fuzzy math, we can see that those numbers only add up to 58 percent. It just happens to turn out that 38 percent of college students identify themselves as political independents. Four percent refused to answer.

The important thing here is that there are significantly more students choosing political independence than affiliation with either one of the individual parties. I'm sure there are some students who choose their party membership because they agree with every policy position that party offers. I'm also sure that some students register with a party so that they can vote in primaries, so this could lead to the respondents' overstating their party affiliation in place of their true political leanings.

There is probably good reason that students are not strongly divided into either of the two major camps. If we are to take the traditional assumption that liberals are Democrats and conservatives are Republicans, we can start to see why students are not rushing to identify themselves away from the center.

The problem that conservatives are encountering -- nationally and especially at Penn State -- is that they are advocating their positions in an immature and offensive manner. Personally, I tended to be much more conservative politically (and a political science major) in my earlier semesters here, but not once was it ever apparent that I was being treated unfairly by any professor or instructor because of ideology. There may well be isolated instances I'm not aware of, but university professors don't rise to their level of achievement through the lack of open discussion and merit-based evaluation.

Whether it is through the offensive posting of pictures online or a provocative rally on the steps of Old Main, conservatives are detracting from the clarity of the message they should be trying to send. Instead of focusing on trying to bring about a limitation of the size of government, they are instead only reinforcing stereotypes as intolerant bigots that the Republican Party has long been working to eliminate.

It seems that much of the right on this campus has fallen into the same cesspool occupied by national figures such as Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. Rather than engage in an intellectual argument, it becomes a race to see who can shout louder at the nearest Birkenstock-wearing liberal. To them, it was acceptable to bash Clinton in general, and especially for lying about his affair with an intern. For them, it's unacceptable to bash Bush in general, and especially not for lying about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

Of course, looking at things from a politically independent point of view, we can see things wrong with the left as well. As if students weren't worried enough about finding a job after graduation, the left would have it that we would give an even larger part of our paycheck to the government in the name of "public services." The Democratic frontrunner -- Howard Dean-- wishes to repeal Bush's tax cuts. Free market conservatives are rightly touting this as a $2 trillion "Dean Tax" if Dean is elected. Such a large tax increase hardly resonates financially with the vast majority of this country either. Dean must also fight the perception that he and the Democrats would be weak against terrorists, as this is going to be the most important electoral issue.

Another thing that the left has done to make itself less attractive with many college students who like to speak their mind, is that they have installed a politically correct manner of debate. God forbid if anyone is slightly offended. It is precisely this conditioning that is partly responsible for such a conservative backlash from the right. Although the conservatives have indeed been offensive and gone too far, the left needs to moderate its everything-must-be-PC message.

The traditional view of college students as crazy liberals is as incorrect as the notion that there is a massive conservative takeover of the student body. The left would be "puzzled" if you identified yourself as a Democrat who nonetheless supports preemptive warfare or anti-abortion rights or is against affirmative action. The right would be "confused" if you were supposedly a Republican who does not insist on school prayer and is just fine with abortion the way it is. If you fall into these categories or just don't agree with every position the two major parties have to offer, you just might be an independent. In the middle, your beliefs are matched up against the two parties rather than flowing from the parties. You can ignore the shouting from both sides and select the better of the two candidates on the ticket. Over on the polls, they call us moderates.