Last week, Penn State Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) staked 100 small flags in the HUB lawn to represent the political views of Penn State professors: blue for members of the Democratic Party and red for the Republican Party.

About two-thirds of the flags were blue, representing 68 percent of the professors at University Park who are registered with the Democratic Party.

While group members said they were not pressuring the university to hire more Republican professors, they are telling students to take "what they hear from their professors with a grain of salt."

Shouldn't students question what they are being told in the first place? If you disagree with a professor, you should argue and debate, not just close your ears to what the professor has to say.

As students, it is both ridiculous and arrogant to dismiss ideas of our professors simply because we might think the professor is left wing. It is not our job on the first day of class to say, "This professor is obviously a Democrat, and therefore I don't agree with his or her viewpoints." In doing so, we would be cheating ourselves out of part of our education.

Good political discourse should be welcome in any classroom, but particularly those in the area of political science, philosophy, English and other related subjects where the topic is relevant.

However, many conservative groups have stated that the liberal voice of a professor makes a student uncomfortable with sharing his or her viewpoints. But in a class where political discussion is common, there is often a professor who plays devil's advocate so that a student has to carefully build his or her argument. Many professors don't even share their views because they fear the liberal label.

Democrat and Republican do not always mean liberal and conservative, which YAF has apparently forgotten. No one is a perfect fit with the direct party line of the two dominant political parties in the United States. While one person might be liberal and agree with the plights of gay Americans, he might also be a fiscal conservative because of an economic background and thus disagree with many Democratic policies regarding finance. The party registrations of the University Park professors truly mean nothing.

There is no way for YAF to know that each of those professors represented by the blue flags is a true liberal who agrees with the Democratic party on every issue and, furthermore, drowns out the conservative voices in his or her classes.

If conservative students don't share their views in a classroom setting where genuine discourse is welcome, then they are doing a disservice to their fellow students.