Cornell Faculty Donations Flood Left, Filings Show

Cornell Daily Sun ^ | OCTOBER 15, 2015 12:06 AM | By PHOEBE KELLER and EMILY FRIEDMAN

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Of the nearly $600,000 Cornell’s faculty donated to political candidates or parties in the past four years, over 96 percent has gone to fund Democratic campaigns, while only 15 of the 323 donors gave to conservative causes.

The Sun’s analysis of Federal Election Committee data reveals that from 2011 to 2014, Cornell’s faculty donated $573,659 to Democrats, $16,360 to Republicans and $2,950 to Independents. Each of Cornell’s 13 schools — both graduate and undergraduate — slanted heavily to the left. In the College of Arts and Sciences, 99 percent of the $183,644 donated went to liberal campaigns. The law school demonstrated the strongest conservative showing, with nearly 26 percent of its approximately $20,000 worth of donations going to Republicans....

Although students and professors alike said they consider Cornell’s faculty generally Democratic, nearly all remarked that they had not expected to see donation numbers so dramatically skewed....

Though Cornell’s administration declined to comment for this article, John Carberry, senior director of media relations, said only that political tendency is “not a condition [the University] weighs when hiring or working with faculty.”

However, several professors offered their opinions as to why such a high percentage of Cornell’s faculty seems to lean left....

“It is not surprising that faculty at Cornell find the anti-scientific rhetoric of many in the Republican Party to be troublesome,” Prof. Kenneth McClane, English, said. “Many of us here are scientists — we believe in global warming, since we believe what the research tells us.”

some students recounted incidents in which they said their professors were far from objective, saying that personal politics entered both the classroom and coursework.

Brandon Thompson ’16 said he has seen “thousands of examples” of professors holding debates and only giving conservative students a fraction of the speaking time given to their liberal counterparts.

Prof. Andrew Little, government, said that while it would be “nice to have more balance,” he would not advocate compromising the quality of Cornell’s professors, which he suggests would be the effect of seeking out Republican faculty.

“Placing more emphasis on diversity of political beliefs when hiring [would] almost certainly require sacrificing on general quality or other dimensions of diversity,” he said....

While Cornell pursues diversity in its student body and in certain aspects of its faculty, many students and professors who saw these statistics said they were concerned about Cornell’s professed diversity of thought...

[Behind Liberal Lines]

While the idea that academia is largely left-leaning isn't big news, I found this article interesting on several levels:

First you had the professorial arrogance of "well, republicans hate science." Again, a standard reply to this sort of thing. However, when one of the self-described "scientists" is an English professor, the arrogance goes to eleven.

Next, you have the liberals suddenly saying that they can't hire for "diversity" because that might mean the best candidate wouldn't get hired. Mm'kay...let's try that argument for other "diversity hires" and see what those same liberals think.

Finally, you have the professor who says that, while academia may be liberal, the problem is compounded at Cornell, due to its location in Ithaca. And, Ithaca, as we all know....is the City of Evil.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

In other news, the sun rose and the wind blew.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Prof. Kenneth McClane, English, said. “Many of us here are scientists — we believe in global warming, since we believe what the research tells us.”

Interesting comment. Not "what these data show" but "what the research tells us".

[Arm_Bears]

Stop all federal money going to Cornell in any form, and eliminate any tax breaks enjoyed by the school.

Yesterday.

[chrisser]

“Many of us here are scientists — we believe in global warming, since we believe what the research tells us.”

What he really means is:

"Many of us here are scientists who receive most funding through government grants - we believe in global warming, since we believe whatever the grant makers tell us they want us to believe. And it doesn't hurt that it benefits the Leftist cause..."

[Timocrat]

John Carberry, senior director of media relations, said only that political tendency is “not a condition [the University] weighs when hiring or working with faculty.”

Mr. Carberry also believes in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.

If he truly believes that he's too stupid to be the Janitor at an Ivy league school never mind part of the Administration.

[bjorn14]

I hope the 15 who donated to Republican candidates aren’t outed and fired. Not holding my breath.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Picked up by Fox: http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/10/18/cornell-professor-hiring-republicans-would-decrease-quality-faculty

[Chode]

CornHOLE, feh...