Posted on 05/02/2018 11:56:09 AM PDT by DeweyCA
What would you say if I told you that the faculty at most colleges and universities, particularly the larger liberal arts schools, is predominantly composed of liberal Democrats? You might find that surprising if you happen to have been living under a rock for the past several decades but otherwise, this is pretty much a dog-bites-man story. But just how bad is the imbalance? Mitchell Langbert at the National Association of Scholars (NAS) recently finished a lengthy research project examining the question and has published the results. No matter how bad you think the level of liberal bias is at most schools, it’s probably worse.
In this article I offer new evidence about something readers of Academic Questions already know: The political registration of full-time, Ph.D.-holding professors in top-tier liberal arts colleges is overwhelmingly Democratic. Indeed, faculty political affiliations at 39 percent of the colleges in my sample are Republican free—having zero Republicans. The political registration in most of the remaining 61 percent, with a few important exceptions, is slightly more than zero percent but nevertheless absurdly skewed against Republican affiliation and in favor of Democratic affiliation. Thus, 78.2 percent of the academic departments in my sample have either zero Republicans, or so few as to make no difference.
My sample of 8,688 tenure track, Ph.D.–holding professors from fifty-one of the sixty-six top ranked liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News 2017 report consists of 5,197, or 59.8 percent, who are registered either Republican or Democrat. The mean Democratic-to-Republican ratio (D:R) across the sample is 10.4:1, but because of an anomaly in the definition of what constitutes a liberal arts college in the U.S. News survey, I include two military colleges, West Point and Annapolis.1 If these are excluded, the D:R ratio is a whopping 12.7:1.
The numbers which include the two military schools should be disregarded. Obviously, there’s going to be a significantly larger percentage of conservatives among those who answer the call to service. And how you define West Point or Annapolis as a “liberal arts school” is something of a mystery to begin with. But as for the rest of the schools, that’s a bigger gap than even I had imagined. Nearly eight out of ten of these colleges either have zero Republicans in their faculty or a number so small as to be statistically insignificant. And even the schools with a measurable number of Republicans still find them being vastly outnumbered.
Sadly, despite the broad swath of the country away from the coasts where conservative views are more dominant, this is one area where Republicans and conservatives have failed to make any inroads. And it’s not a trivial matter. It’s true that many people emerge from four years of college and 100% immersion in liberal doctrine with a decidedly leftward worldview, but later go on to slowly grow more conservative. This usually happens when they wind up having to begin paying their own bills (and taxes), are faced with raising children or try to purchase a home. But that process can take decades and obviously they don’t all make the journey.
Allowing nearly all of the schools to be conducting this sort of liberal indoctrination program and supporting an agenda where any opposing views are shouted down leaves us with one generation after another of young workers – and voters – who are still tilted in the direction of socialism. It’s a dangerous situation and flies in the face of what true education should be about. Spirited debate and exposure to both sides of each fundamental question would produce a more thoughtful generation of graduates. How we make any inroads in that area remains a mystery as long as the numbers are as horrid as Langbert found in his analysis.
I would love to see the Leftists’ heads explode if ideological affiliation were added to “diversity” and required like others in “protected classes”.
The meltdown would be worse than chernobyl and so entertaining, popcorn supplies would be almost instantly exhausted.
Survey shocker: Liberal profs admit they’d discriminate against conservatives in hiring, advancement
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/1/liberal-majority-on-campus-yes-were-biased/
And there are other things we can do.
Don’t donate to schools that oppress conservatives - and tell them this is why you won’t donate to them.
Don’t send your children or grandchildren to these discriminatory institutions, and tell others that is the reason. Many parents just look at the website or fall in love with the campus. Discuss the horror stories of X professor calling the police on someone who presented a pro-gun paper, the professor who says we need to deny freedom of speech to X and Y groups.
Whatever school your kid attends, don’t let them get an ethnic studies, women’s studies or social justice degree.
Teach kids to film professors when they are speaking, especially if they say “don’t tell anyone else about this”.
Defend all students who do record. Your classroom is not a counselor’s office, it is a public space we’re paying for. You have NO expectation of privacy. This is public record, and often, self-defense.
Great points, all.
I was referring to your reading and posting of comments on ratemyprofessor.com. True, not as good as being able to vent to the student next to you about some tyrannical leftist instructor. But at least when you’re sitting at home at your computer at an online course you can yell out insults at idiots like this and/or go to some site like that right away to vent your rage.
That’s meeting a primal need, as I think having to just sit there and take in in a live class is very unhealthy and a key component of the left being able to brainwash our youth, that gets removed from the online experience.
So sure, the online experience isn’t perfect either, but I have a lot more hope for young minds being able to resist the mind control efforts of these leftist propagandists if they don’t just have to sit there and repress there thoughts and emotions in class in order to fit in and succeed.
There are colleges like the University of Missouri that are reforming because they lost a quarter of their students. They don’t want to change, but they don’t want to close down, either.
If we can start putting that economic and social pressure on colleges, we could get reform underway well before political pressure builds.
And if you deny the SJW generating programs both students and money, you’re starving them next semester.
Colleges could save massive money by shutting down useless majors and departments. Eliminate “Studies.” Gut “diversity” programs, which are nothing more than anti white male cliques anyway. Cut back on faculty that does nothing but conduct obscure research that’s of no value. And establish a code of conduct that swiftly punishes the Auntie Fugh crowd and other thugs.
We stop using their services. Education is going on-line anyway as colleges will be a thing of the past not too far from now. Going to hurt college towns like Flagstaff, where I live. Should help in the long run as the extreme liberals that inhabit our city will have to ply their wares some place else.
Government dictates what is to be taught in some instances...states should be able to dictate American History, American geography, and the Constitution and Declaration of Independence be taught in grade schools as well as high schools. It should be law.
If someone shows up and says “shut down this department”, the fascists scream fascism.
Cut back their funding and enrollment, and a few remain in a corner of the university but don’t have the disproportionate power or influence on or off campus.
By “shut down” I mean “defund.” And let ‘em howl. They’re going to anyway.
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