Posted on 04/07/2005 8:10:33 AM PDT by rface
“Conservatives have a hard time in academia,” Mansfield said. “Just look at my department. There are fifty professors, and two or three are Republicans. How is that possible?”....Graduate School of Education professor Julie A. Reuben said that she believed the abundance of liberals in academia could be due to the fact that as people become more educated, they tend to become more liberal.
Harvard’s facetious moniker, “The Kremlin on the Charles,” may be more accurate than previously speculated, according to a report released last week.
The study, published in The Forum, an online social science journal, concluded that discrimination may account for a reported dearth of conservatives in academia.
According to the study, 72 percent of professors at U.S. universities identify themselves as liberal and just 15 percent as conservative.
At elite schools, the gap was more pronounced, with 87 percent of faculty self-identifying as liberal and only 13 percent as conservative.
The study was based on a 1999 survey of 1,643 full-time faculty at 183 four-year schools. The survey asked professors to identify their political beliefs on a 10-point scale, ranging from
“very conservative” to “very liberal.”
Stanley Rothman, professor emeritus of government at Smith College and one of the co-authors of the study, said that discrimination against conservatives could occur in either the hiring or tenure processes.
Rothman, who has written previously on affirmative action in academia and media bias, said he observed such discrimination in his own department.
“When you get into a discussion with people whose views you disagree with, you’ll see them as idiots or bad people,” Rothman said. “There is a natural tendency to do that, whether you’re conservative or liberal. Liberals are just the ones that call the tune more. It is very difficult to overcome this tendency.”
Rothman said that he was guilty of this very bias in his left-leaning youth, but has become more conservative with age.
Rothman co-authored the study with Neil Nevitte, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, and S. Robert Lichter, the president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which is affiliated with George Mason University and, according to the Washington Post, is supported by conservative foundations.
Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 says he is not surprised by the report’s findings.
“Conservatives have a hard time in academia,” Mansfield said. “Just look at my department. There are fifty professors, and two or three are Republicans. How is that possible?”
But Graduate School of Education professor Julie A. Reuben, who had not fully examined the study, said she was skeptical of the argument that discrimination is to blame for the weak conservative voice on campus.
“I would have assumed that there is a high degree of self-selection rather than discrimination,” Reuben said.
Reuben also said that she believed the abundance of liberals in academia could be due to the fact that as people become more educated, they tend to become more liberal.
Mansfield, however, said he rejects the “liberals are smarter” hypothesis.
“That is ridiculous,” Manfield said. “All that would mean is that fewer conservatives go to graduate school, because there are no [academic] jobs for them.”
Mansfield offered another hypothesis for the bluish tint to the ivory tower.
“Multiculturalism crowds out conservatives,” Mansfield said. “They think they’ve done their duty by promoting women and minorities. Once they’re done doing that, they have nothing left for conservatives.”
Rothman said he had not given much thought to Mansfield’s indictment of multiculturalism, but he said that it could “certainly play a role.”
Rothman did not speculate on the political impact this would have on universities, but he said that he hoped to show that unconscious biases may exist in hiring and tenure practices.
“If they can understand that, they can be more self conscious and therefore more fair,” Rothman said.
—Staff writer Sarah E.F. Milov can be reached at milov@fas.harvard.edu.
And in a related story, scientists have also confirmed that the Earth is round and the sky is blue!
/sarc
Study Finds Academia May Favor Liberals
MAY.....THEY HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING. IT DEFINITELY DOES FAVOR LIBERALS.
Not that it is going to change anything.
And in another developing story, dog bites man.
Tell me it isn't so!
"Graduate School of Education professor Julie A. Reuben said that she believed the abundance of liberals in academia could be due to the fact that as people become more educated, they tend to become more liberal."
I am reminded of the saying, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."
As people become more intelligent, they become more conservative, because they deal in facts not speculation, theory, and drivel.
"professor Julie A. Reuben said that she believed the abundance of liberals in academia could be due to the fact that as people become more educated, they tend to become more liberal."
Oh that is preciously blind ... lol ... She admits its almost all liberals teaching college kids, and then concludes that as you are going through college and getting more educated, you are becoming more liberal ...
Only a liberal could drip this kind of drivel.
Well, at least for as long as it takes for these studies to be forgotten.
MAY LOL
Just because their favorite (holiday) is MAY DAY doesn't mean they are not socialist scum.
Here is an example. Mens figure skating in the West is largely a homosexual thing. On the other hand, there are plenty of hetero Russian figure skaters. Just a cultural thing.
Yup. That's gotta be it. That's how the dixiecrats saw "Jim Crow" policies, too.
"Wah, it's jes' that all these people want to be around others just like themselves, that's only natchrul, isn't it? So natchallee, they don't want them "other people" around dirtying the place up."
Face it - liberals think that their predominence in academia is natural, because they are all smarter, more enlightened than the rest of us. And in the liberal echo chamber of academia, it resounds without question.
"Only a liberal could drip this kind of drivel."
As people do better, they start voting like Republicans—unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.
--Karl Rove
The ocean in some places is very deep! more study required.
Never fear with our superior education and intellect which accounts for our liberal bias we can study this for decades.
As long as it doesn't affect the poor, women and children the most there is no pressing need, of course if the women and children are conservetives they don't count anyway.
hegemony is what the radical feminists achieved in the early 1970's:
promote white women,
promote foriegners,
promote minority women,
promote gays
exclude white males, especially if they are conservative, heterosexual or religious.
if a white male gets into academia, then he must be radical left.
the result is that you don't see many black males in academia. this was first noticed by the anthropologist marvin harris who published a book in the early 1970s. he said that after a century of discrimination, when it was about time for black men to succeed, then white elitist females took the positions in academia and government.
asian males make their own place in the sciences, engineering, and medicine.
a few mexican males get to teach reconquista.
many universities boast international faculties. it goes without saying that they are communists or socialists.
Bwahahahahahahaha...stoopid libs, only took them a century figure this one out.
In other news, scientists confirmed today that ice is cold.
Look. It's simply a bunch of nerds who stay in "academia" in order to increase their odds of getting laid.
My retired gay uncle remained at a university his entire adult life. He never left "academia" to this day, as he is still a consultant at the university he was previously the dean at.
" Reuben also said that she believed the abundance of liberals in academia could be due to the fact that as people become more educated, they tend to become more liberal. "
Oh I'm just choking on this statement.
Quite the contrary, as people, in the real world, become more educated they become more conservative.
Oh the lofty educated liberal elites..... who can not see the forest for the trees. Tread not on me.
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