Nearly all my professors are Democrats. Isn't that a problem?

Christian Science Monitor ^ | July 13, 2009 | Dan Lawton

[Mr. Blonde]

When I began examining the political affiliation of faculty at the University of Oregon, the lone conservative professor I spoke with cautioned that I would "make a lot of people unhappy."

Though I mostly brushed off his warning – assuming that academia would be interested in such discourse – I was careful to frame my research for a column for the school newspaper diplomatically.

The University of Oregon (UO), where I study journalism, invested millions annually in a diversity program that explicitly included "political affiliation" as a component. Yet, out of the 111 registered Oregon voters in the departments of journalism, law, political science, economics, and sociology, there were only two registered Republicans.

A number of conservative students told me they felt Republican ideas were frequently caricatured and rarely presented fairly. Did the dearth of conservative professors on campus and apparent marginalization of ideas on the right belie the university's commitment to providing a marketplace of ideas?

[Hyzenthlay]

“In some departments, I can at least understand the argument that most professors will be liberal because nearly everyone in the field is liberal.”

You hit the nail on the head here - look at the departments he was including, they were ones like journalism or sociology where liberalism is very prevalent. I’d bet this student would find a lot more Republicans if he included math or science departments (if said student can even find the math and science departments). Out of all the classes I’ve taken, which are largely math, science and engineering classes with an occasional humanities credit, I’ve only had one professor who was even mentioned their political beliefs, and that was in a philosophy class.

[Blind Eye Jones]

It just occurred to me. One of the first movies where rednecks got the counter culture subversives (hippies) was “Easy Rider.” Now the “cool” opposition are the nihilists who are basically a godless European import. Art mirrors life.

[TopQuark]

Distance teaching is like distance healing: it cannot be done well. It substitutes a nurse for a doctor.

You fail to see that through no fault of your own. GIVEN how low university education has fallen -— especially in humanities and social “sciences” -— there appears to be not much difference between that and distance learning.

Proper teaching and learning requires, in part, a discussion and spontaneity that are facilitated only by physical proximity.

[TopQuark]

You raise valid concerns, but I still cannot agree.

Many people get into economics, for instance, because they want to help society. Once they are in, however, what prohibits them from “falling in love” with free markets? It is these markets, after all, that ushered unprecedented prosperity in the Western World. One can come out from the study of economics being quite conservative.

This does not happen, of course, because the process of teaching has been hijacked and substituted with indoctrination. Nowadays even science professors feel free to express political views in the classroom.

About your second point. We witness an interesting (at least to me) phenomenon where MBAs elbow each other for top jobs on Wall Street, make a ton of money and then... send donations to the Democratic party and denounce capitalism.

I do not claim the ability to diagnose properly all of the problems, but our culture is sick, very sick.

[RinaseaofDs]

The cool places are the seats of government. Too be a bit graphic, they constitute ‘the nipple of the teat’.

As such, its where the sows tend to snuggle.

[GOPJ]

To them diversity only means skin color. Diversity of thought is dangerous don’t you know?

Skin color, last names and what sex organs are rubbed against what... But you're right absolutely no diversity of thought.