[Labyrinthos]

Although I have no doubt that political diversity is non-existent at Ithica College, this particular exercise doesn't prove anything without knowing the number of faculty members for which they were unable to determine party affiliation. Junk science is junk science whether it comes from the right or the left.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I believe there is substantial corroboration of the results, coming from no less a source than senior administrators at Ithaca College itself.

In a radio report on the study, the Ithaca College Dean of Humanities didn't dispute anything in the study. He just tried to claim that the professors are "objective" and don't try to recruit students. Sure.

On a local TV program, the Ithaca College Provost similarly did not question the veracity of the findings. His defense? IC does not discriminate against Republicans in hiring.

Of course when it comes to racial and other minorities, IC engages in aggressive affirmative action. I suppose he wants us to believe it's just pure chance that 93.6% of the faculty are Democrats or Greens!

[ml/nj]

Although I have no doubt that political diversity is non-existent at Ithica College, this particular exercise doesn't prove anything without knowing the number of faculty members for which they were unable to determine party affiliation. Junk science is junk science whether it comes from the right or the left.

I think you are wrong here.

The only assumption being made is that the ones for whom party affiliation could be determined from NYS registration information were politically representative of the whole. This probably isn't an off-the-wall assumption as it is unlikely that a potential faculty member is asked about his registration during the hiring process.

After that it's just simple statistics. I don't feel like figuring it out now, but if half of the faculty was sampled the margin of error in estimating the division of the entire faculty is quite small.

ML/NJ