Professors don't rub off politics on their students

Denver Post ^ | 3/28/08

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

Conservatives complain that college professors lean left when it comes to politics — and the data mostly show that's true. But new research suggests the personal politics of academics have little effect on what their students think.

The research, to be published this year in the journal PS: Political Science and Politics, analyzes separate surveys on the attitudes of about 6,800 students at 38 universities and how they changed between their freshman and senior years. Then it examines whether those results are affected by the political attitudes of the faculty at their particular schools.

The short answer is no, according to researchers Gordon Hewitt of Hamilton College, an active Democrat, and Mack Mariani of Xavier University, who has worked for Republicans.

It is true that schools with a more liberal faculty tended to attract more liberal students. But on the question of how students' views evolved, there was little impact, Hewitt said in a phone interview Thursday.

About 60 percent of students didn't change their political outlooks much during college. Those that did moved slightly to the left, but the change mirrored that of 18- to 24-year-olds generally.

[Hyzenthlay]

Ooh, better yet, tell him to use the word ‘heteronormative’ correctly in a paper. Personally, I’ve found that regardless of what you say around it, just proving that you know what it means is an instant A+ from any professor that’s even slightly liberal. Personally, I also just got an A+ for writing a paper about how zombie movies express a fear of loss of humanity... you’ve just got to find the right classes, and the right profs =)

[Skenderbej]

Agreed. I had a Humanity of Islam class in college. Before that I lived in an Islamic country for two years and worked in intel dealing with Islamic issues for an additional three years. My first two papers for that class spoke of my experience with Islam contrasting to the “peaceful” teachings of the Koran. When my real life experiences did not match the teachings of the religion of peace, I received two C’s. The only correction on those papers was a sentence at the end saying “This paper does not reflect the teachings of Islam”.

For my subsequent papers I lied and wrote about how flowery wonderful Islam was and the world would be a utopia if we all abided by its concepts. I received A’s henceforward in that class.

[pepsionice]

I think...only from experiencing this in attending Louisiana Tech...that as professors work to get you smarter and they use tons of liberal thoughts and ideas to accomplish this...you the student...start to get very intelligent and ask some really stupid ideas...which can’t be explained away by a incompetent professor. The more naive students might just accept the guy’s ideas as legit...but most folks start asking “opposite effect” questions...which trigger more analysis. So I’d proudly say that the more that a liberal professor says...the more that he damages his student’s perception.

[y6162]

If I were you, I would have invited the prof to appear in a video that you planned to post on the web regarding the religion of peace as a class project.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t know the circumstance of your university. There are obviously some good professors out there, and you seem like you would be one of them. We’ve agreed on a number of issues.

As a general rule, I think kids should be exposed to conservatism on an equal footing with socialism/communism. Of course I’d refer no socialism/communism, but I am willing to let conservatism stand on it’s own, as long as it is presented to be as valid an ideology has the others.

80 to 90% leftist professors? That isn’t right. We shouldn’t allow that. Salespeople will tell you that you have to make calls to get sales. I think that concept is as valid on a university campus as it is in the car dealership. You don’t sell something unless it’s presented in the best light possible.

If we don’t demand that conservatism be taught on an equal basis with the other ideologies, then it will not sell as frequently as it should.

If you had top of the line Mazerattis on sale for $25,000, how many would you sell if the showroom was in a out of the way place in the city with the door locked and the windows covered?

Conservatism is all too often relagated to the out of the way places, with the doors locked and the windows covered.

Our politicians are not selling it. It’s not being allowed to compete on our university campuses. It’s begining to show in our societal attitudes and political choices.

[LS]

You are probably too low in your estimates. I've seen surveys at U. of Denver, U. of Colorado, UCSD, Cornell, Davidson, and some 10 other schools published in "The American Enterprise" magazine, and 90% is the norm, and quite low in some schools.

Cornell had 9 conservatives out of 229 faculty in some seven departments; my school has perhaps five "Republicans" in seven humanities departments totaling well over 100 faculty.

But the problem with "equal coverage" is that it simply isn't going to happen, nor do we really want the government to try to enforce it. While that might seem good in the short run, having the government tell you who to hire on the basis of politics would be the absolute worst outcome---you could easily end up with governments making things, yes, WORSE by saying RINOs were "conservatives." I still don't know how, exactly, ANY conservative gets hired, but it still happens. I know a department (and I won't name it to protect the faculty member) which hired a conservative at our school recently.

The solution is less government aid for all schools. If you get government out, market pressures will force schools to have academic balance, because parents surely don't want their kids hearing a lot of this junk.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m sympathetic to your opposing arguement. I do see problems along the lines of what you address. I would however think that government funds should be predicated on the idea of a balanced education being provided to the student body.

Why should we allow these universities to corrupt our kids with federal dollars.

The feds (and the faculties as well) wouldn’t allow ten minutes to go by if there were 95% whites at these universities. The ACLU would jump in with both feet.

Would you agree, or do you think I’m using a bad model here? Would you state that universities do pretty much reflect proper percentages compared to the populace at large, or would you say they don’t?

[LS]

I agree it’s a worthy objective. In reality, I fear it would only lead to less free thinking and actual conservative ideas being allowed in.

[robininnm]

Yes, it is interesting. The studies I’ve read and lifetime events have taught me that the higher educated an individual the more neutral they become. Less educated libs and conservs both are more polarized. What’s always interesting are mixed marriages where one spouse is well educated and the other is just a hs grad. Either way, education will rarely change a students core values. Instead they will evolve and realize that each side has its strengths and weaknesses.