College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds

The Washington Post, ^ | March 29, 2005 | Howard Kurtz

[quidnunc]

College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says.

By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week. The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans.

The disparity is even more pronounced at the most elite schools, where, according to the study, 87 percent of faculty are liberal and 13 percent are conservative.

"What's most striking is how few conservatives there are in any field," said Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University and a co-author of the study. "There was no field we studied in which there were more conservatives than liberals or more Republicans than Democrats. It's a very homogenous environment, not just in the places you'd expect to be dominated by liberals."

Religious services take a back seat for many faculty members, with 51 percent saying they rarely or never attend church or synagogue and 31 percent calling themselves regular churchgoers. On the gender front, 72 percent of the full-time faculty are male and 28 percent female.

The findings, by Lichter and fellow political science professors Stanley Rothman of Smith College and Neil Nevitte of the University of Toronto, are based on a survey of 1,643 full-time faculty at 183 four-year schools. The researchers relied on 1999 data from the North American Academic Study Survey, the most recent comprehensive data available.

-snip-

[bonfire]

My son loves his liberal college. Debating is his forte.

[Clemenza]

Was true when I was in school, was true when my dad was in school.

[California Patriot]

Good that this is getting major coverage in the Washington Post. There are lots of people who still don't know this, and others who want to deny it, but perhaps eventually won't be able to.

[ran15]

"My son loves his liberal college. Debating is his forte."

I must admit its fun to debate liberals as its easy to blow them away, and force them into emotional outbursts.

[clee1]

Put this one in the "duh" file.

[MaryClyens]

I don't know... I went to a college that is widely noted for being very liberal. I found most of the faculty to be decidedly centrist, and certainly in favor of a moderate status quo. Most of my professors were not openly ideological in any sense. The others were pretty fairly split between libertarians and Establishment Democrats. I did have one radical professor my senior year, but his class was also the most interesting, so we (the conservatives in the class) didn't mind.

[patton]

heheheheh. define centrist.

[Bulgaricus]

You should check out Brainwashing 101. They have clips of conservative students being punished, ignored, banned, harrassed, having cops called on 'em, etc. Tactics that would make Hitler, Stalin, and Janet Reno proud!

One conservative Sihk was threated via email with the note "we should kill all ragheads like this" & nothing was done by the college. Why? Because he was conservative. Think it was U of Tennassee.

Anyone that sends their kid to a secular college in the States w/o preping 'em is a fool. You'll get exactly what you paid for.

These guys pump 100% crap into their brains calling it truth.

If you ask me, stupid is as stupid does.

[MaryClyens]

appreciative of the status quo. I would say most of my professors were openly patriotic (I didn't see any anti-Americanism),pro-free market, and secularist.

[advance_copy]

Rain wet, study finds

[MaryClyens]

... so a little of each side.

[RightMike]

Part of the problem is here is that there is not much of a conservative teaching/professor group to choose from. Professors, in general, are more liberal. I hope overtime more conservatives get interested in teaching college--until then I'm not sure what the long term answer to this is...

[Ain Soph Aur]

It happens everywhere. I'm a student at the University of Oklahoma, and one of our professors of Geology, David Deming, got a raw deal because of his conservative views. After a history of expressing those views (during which his superiors put his writings in his evaluation folder, and attempted to pressure him into shutting up), he stumbled upon a somewhat shady hiring in the department. When he told someone, he was immediately removed from the department, and placed under direct supervision of the dean. He now has a basement office and is not allowed to teach Geology or Geophysics classes.

http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/articles.php?id=257
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/5075.html
http://www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/26/41f710b711e2d
http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/5076.html

[driftless]

In all the years I attended college (more than I care to recount before I ultimately got my degree), there was not one prof I knew to be a conservative. There were a few I suspected might have been. But the only profs who jumped up and down and shouted out their political views were far-left types. A lot of the lib profs I knew didn't let their political views intrude on their job. But obviously, as in colleges large and small nation-wide, a number of others did.

[LS]

Give him some ammo:

<

[LS]

Not my school, and I teach at a midwest Catholic university. Openly leftist---they've had several activist gays speak in the speakers' series---extremely anti-Bush (they actually allowed him to speak on campus in the 2000 campaign and the fallout was enormous). BIG on "diversity." Ugh.

[LS]

Mike, the problem is pretty deep. I talked about this in the March issue of the "Limbaugh Letter," when Rush asked about the future of universities. Take History: we have a search committee to fill a job. Right off the bat (assuming I'm on the committee) I'll be outnumbered 4:1 on any choice of candidates. (If I'm not on the committee, it's almost certain to be 5:0, libs).

Moreover, the candidates we get will be overwhelmingly leftists, not just because libs tend to go into academics rather than business or the military, but because once you start in the "system," you CANNOT GET A PH D without towing the line. Your dissertation topic has to be approved, and no one will approve a new biography of Washington or Lincoln. So it has to be "race, class, gender," blah, blah.

So even moderately conservative students are driven into the ultra-left methodology and vocabulary just to get out. Trust me, MANY committees will essentially block you if you do not spout what they want to hear.

As a result, many good students who are more conservative go to smaller schools (Oklahoma or Cal State) and then they are excluded in the search process because they don't graduate from "top" schools.

As I told Rush (and there is also a good "Forum" on "Can the University Be Saved" in which I'm one of the members on www.frontpagemagazine.com), while I'm optimistic higher ed can be fixed, right now I don't see how that will happen. It might be more internet Universities, it might be some legislation (doubt it), but I think the place to start is in getting rid of all student aid. Once you make universities more market-sensitive, then they will have to pay attention to their customers.

[Stormcrow]

"Put this one in the "duh" file."

In the interest of retaining posting privileges, I refer to it here as the "No Manure?" file.

[bonfire]

Thanks! I will!