Is Harvard the most conservative university of the US coasts?

[Antonio the Sixth]

All Prestigious Universities(TM) are deeply conservative institutions at heart.

[Antonio the Sixth]

All of the Ivies are elitist, but they are not conservative in any sense deserving of the name and have not been for a long time.

They have a core interest in preserving the existing social hierarchies and power structures, and employ their monetary and cultural resources in service of that interest. That's all conservatism has really been at any point in history.

[Antonio the Sixth]

All of the Ivies are elitist, but they are not conservative in any sense deserving of the name and have not been for a long time.

They have a core interest in preserving the existing social hierarchies and power structures, and employ their monetary and cultural resources in service of that interest. That's all conservatism has really been at any point in history.

This post (and this thread) are treating universities like monoliths which is obviously oversimplistic.

Faculty, administration, student body, and supporting staff likely all have rather different interests and trying to portray them as having a single "core interest" will always be a doomed enterprise. Even this coarse grouping misses key differences, e.g., among a business school, engineering program, or humanities department within arts and sciences, or between students on work study and student athletes, or between a Dean and an adjunct, etc.

If your point is to more narrowly say that Harvard's governing board has a "core interest" in preserving power structures, then this statement is a little meaningless, as it's going to be true of many more four-year universities than just the self-styled "elite" schools.

I mean, sure, but that IS particularly true of self-styled "elite" schools. These schools' entire model can only function under condition of extreme social inequality.