how attitudes impact our educational goals

[Merlin]

I'm pretty lost at this point - no idea what you're talking about.  The reason some people leave is because they've gotten their degrees, have other stuff going on, etc.  I'm almost positive they're not "driven away" by any particular posts.

I agree, most folks only stick around until they graduate and then move on.

They might be driven away by someone complaining about the forum though!  The political stuff is almost entirely relegated to the Off Topic Area, which you could simply avoid by not going to that section.  I only go there when I'm feeling a little feisty!

I also try to be pretty diligent about moving political posts out of the education topics and keeping them in the off topic area to avoid concerns like this.