It’s should be no surprise then that the environment can be a frustrating place for conservative students — among them Naweed Tahmas, now a 21-year-old senior who was born and bred in deep blue California. Although he flirted with conservative ideas before he got to college, his ideology really gelled at Berkeley. As Tahmas tells it, his freshman year, he enrolled in a sociology class. One day in class, he says, the professor made a comment insinuating that all immigrants and people of colour are oppressed. Tahmas was livid. He’s a minority himself. Both of his parents were immigrants — they came to this country with nothing and, in his mind, achieved the American dream. Outliers, the teacher told him. But what about his aunts, his uncles? They, too, immigrated with next to nothing. And now? They were doctors and engineers. He claims the professor brushed his examples off.