Please tell me if I am wrong, but the way I am reading this is it had boiled down to blue state type faculty vs. red state type students. Apparently the the student at Tuscaloosa must be a rather hardy bunch and have been able to shake off the nonsense that the faculty has exposed them to. Hat tip to the students.
At many (maybe most) southern schools, the students tend to be fairly conservative. When I was at Auburn, the College Republicans was always a large, thriving organization, while the College Dems were lucky to have a handful of people. I would imagine that some schools in the midwest have a similar situation.