Editor, Daily Nexus,

I took a quick look through the list of upcoming Arts & Lectures events for the rest of this quarter and I discovered something that I find quite disturbing. Among the speakers and films that have a political opinion, there is absolutely no representation of conservative ideas. From the film “Iraq in Fragments” to Tariq Ali, from “An Inconvenient Truth” to Elizabeth Kolbert, there is not even a hint of a conservative idea being professed on this campus. Colin Powell came last year, and that is about it.

I believe that this complete lack of a diversity of opinion on campus is shameful. Such a clear political bias in Arts & Lectures is damaging to the educational atmosphere of UCSB. Part of a good education is exposing your mind to as many new ideas as possible. When speakers who profess only the narrowest liberal ideas are brought here by the school to speak, we as students are denied educational opportunities. There is a whole arena of thought that we are being denied. What we get on our campus is a liberal monopoly of ideas.

Luckily, student groups have stepped up to fill in the space where Arts & Lectures has failed. David Horowitz and Walid Shoebat brought refreshing and thought provoking ideas to our campus. It is regrettable that this is the only way to get new ideas flowing around our campus. There is an opportunity to hear further diversity of opinion this Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Campbell Hall. John Stossel of ABC’s “20/20” will be here to speak about the ability of capitalism to solve the world’s problems. Everyone should come check it out and Arts & Lectures should try to bring speakers from different political persuasions to come speak.