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At Universities, a Troubling Imbalance
Star Tribune (via Frontpage.com) ^ | November 21, 2002 | Katherine Kersten

Posted on 11/21/2002 8:14:41 AM PST by Snuffington

At Universities, a Troubling Imbalance
By Katherine Kersten
Star Tribune | November 21, 2002


Last fall, I sat down with my husband and 18-year-old son to begin the college application process. Every school that we considered promised the same thing: a "diversity" that would expand our son's horizons. As proof, each institution offered a glossy brochure filled with pictures of smiling students of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Brochures like this mask a deeply disturbing truth. Today, American universities are the last place that young people should look for diversity. Though these institutions enroll students of different colors, they lack the sort of diversity that is critical to a free society -- a diversity of ideas, of philosophical and political perspectives. One can find a wider spectrum of thought and opinion in any bowling alley or fast-food restaurant than in the faculty lounges of a typical American university.

The political left has dominated American higher education for decades. But a new study suggests that, at many campuses, ideological conformity is reaching truly alarming levels. Recently, the California-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture combed through primary voting registration records to identify the party affiliations of faculty at a broad cross-section of colleges and universities. The overwhelming majority of those registered were Democrats, or members of other parties of the left.

Brown University, an elite campus in Providence, R.I., was typical. There, 95 percent of professors whose party affiliations could be found were Democrats, and only 5 percent were Republicans. (Brown's entire liberal arts faculty included only three Republicans.) The story was similar at less prestigious institutions. At the University of California at Santa Barbara, for example, 97 percent of faculty whose party registrations could be established were Democrats. At the University of New Mexico, 89 percent were Democrats and 4 percent were Greens.

At the University of Colorado, 94 percent of the liberal arts faculty who registered a party affiliation were Democrats, and only 4 percent were Republicans. Yet Colorado is a Republican state -- its governor and senators are Republicans, as are four of its six congressional representatives. Colorado citizens are being taxed to support a university where their own political and philosophical views are barely represented.

Why does this academic imbalance matter? Today, most college professors encourage their students to view subjects like political science, sociology, economics and history through the ideological prism of the political left. They urge students to analyze American society through the lens of race, class and gender, and to adopt a reflexive skepticism about America's role in the world. The impact of ideological imbalance extends well beyond the classroom. At many campuses, for example, young people may find it difficult to recruit a faculty adviser for a prolife student organization, or arrange a lecture by a conservative political figure.

Where can college students go to hear the other half of the story? Generally, they've got to ferret it out on their own. To help my own young friends, I've purchased a new book by political commentator Dinesh D'Souza, called "Letters to a Young Conservative." In the early 1980s, D'Souza helped found the Dartmouth Review, a conservative student newspaper at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College. His slim new volume is a useful primer for students who are eager to sample the intellectual diversity they can't find in college classrooms.

"Letters to a Young Conservative" begins by exploring the differences between the liberal and conservative worldviews. According to D'Souza, the two camps' differing assumptions and priorities spring from divergent views of human nature. Ironically, D'Souza asserts, it is conservatives -- not liberals -- who now uphold the classical "liberal" principles of the American Revolution: economic and political freedom, and freedom of speech and religion. The conservative worldview is grounded in a commitment to these freedoms, and to civic and social virtue.

"Letters to a Young Conservative" includes chapters on many of today's hot-button issues. Whether the subject is multiculturalism, environmentalism or radical feminism, D'Souza offers students a perspective that counters the reigning liberal orthodoxy.

Obviously, works like "Letters to a Young Conservative" are no substitute for ideological balance in the classroom. But such books can inform and inspire students, prompting them to challenge the stultified intellectual climate on their own campuses.

In the end, our best hope for reclaiming intellectual diversity in higher education may be young people's perennial desire to think for themselves. By nature, American students resist indoctrination. Given the necessary intellectual resources, our youth may lead the charge for diversity on their own. If they succeed, American campuses will no longer be islands of ideological conformity, but forums of free inquiry, where unrestricted critical investigation is both possible and encouraged.

Katherine Kersten is Senior Fellow for Cultural Studies at Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minneapolis.



TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: college; education; liberalism; pc
To help my own young friends, I've purchased a new book by political commentator Dinesh D'Souza, called "Letters to a Young Conservative."

Sounds like an interesting book. I remember reading D'Souza's book "Illiberal Education" near the beginning of public awareness of the PC juggernaut on college campuses. The problem now is quite a bit worse that it was then.

I do not share Ms. Kersten's optimisic view of young people reforming the Universities virtually on their own. I think more drastic measures are necessary. Most likely, conservatives will have to put their money where their mouth is, and stop funding liberal schools altogether. That should free up plenty of capital to build or support universities truly dedicated to Classical Liberal education.

1 posted on 11/21/2002 8:14:41 AM PST by Snuffington
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To: CougarGA7
At the University of New Mexico, 89 percent were Democrats and 4 percent were Greens.

No surprise here, eh?

2 posted on 11/21/2002 8:20:42 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Tijeras_Slim
You got that right. It's overloaded with Bertholds. I got a real kick out of that Political Science class I took when the teacher found out the hard way that most of the students in that night class was conservatives.

You know why night classes are predominately conservative? Because conservatives have jobs and really want to contribute to society.

3 posted on 11/21/2002 8:36:34 AM PST by CougarGA7
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To: Snuffington
--tax supported "universities" are one of the greatest taxpayer ripoffs in existence.

Here in Nevada, with a great big budget deficit suddenly showing up , with the resulting cry for increased taxes, the Legislature, not satisfied with having one of the most mediocre educational institutions in the country (UNLV) is funding another one a few miles south in Henderson--

4 posted on 11/21/2002 8:37:22 AM PST by rellimpank
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To: Snuffington
Most likely, conservatives will have to put their money where their mouth is, and stop funding liberal schools altogether.

You hit the good old nail. It is time to question state funding of these schools. First we must address tenure. These are government employees. I can see tenure in fields that can lead to potential political dispute, however there is no reason for tenure in the Math, Computer Science, Physics, etc... departments. Universities should roughly reflect the attitudes, values, morals of the communities that support them via taxes. If leftist/Marxist professors must preach their BS, they can do it at private universities and colleges.

5 posted on 11/21/2002 8:38:07 AM PST by Blue Screen of Death
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To: Blue Screen of Death
Does anybody know of any conservative colleges?
6 posted on 11/21/2002 8:47:00 AM PST by Garden Island
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To: Garden Island
Does anybody know of any conservative colleges?

There have been several threads here on FR about this. There was one about two or three weeks ago and it was obvious that some of the Freepers had done some very good research. I am way beyond looking for schools for myself or children, so I am not really up on it.

7 posted on 11/21/2002 8:53:47 AM PST by Blue Screen of Death
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To: Garden Island
HILLSDALE.....use that as a search word, and you'll probably find the threads that talk about good conservative schools.
8 posted on 11/21/2002 9:03:21 AM PST by goodnesswins
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To: Snuffington
This is true, but what can be done about it?
9 posted on 11/21/2002 9:18:45 AM PST by JohnMac
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To: Snuffington
I read a few yrs back that there were the 31 professors & they hired another one unbeknown he was a Pubbie. Their statement later was that if they had known they would NOT have hired him. That's why I despise that school.
10 posted on 11/21/2002 9:45:28 AM PST by Digger
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To: JohnMac
Another thread, Will we ever stop sending our kids to Ivy League Schools?, ....http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/793267/posts
11 posted on 11/21/2002 9:49:13 AM PST by Joe Republc
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To: Garden Island
Texas A&M is for now, but wackos are getting a foothold.
12 posted on 11/21/2002 9:49:23 AM PST by john316
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To: Garden Island
Hillsdale College, in Michigan; Grove City, in Pennsylvania; Claremont, in Southern California; St. Olaf's College, Minnesota. There is a book released annually that provides a rating from a conservative perspective (I can't remember the name) and should provide you with some guidance. I think it was published by the National Review.

Hillsdale is the most rock-solid conservative private university providing an excellent education that is recognized nationwide and would position a child well for a career. My impression is that it can be considered the "Stanford of the political right." It does not have a specific religious affiliation, although I'm pretty certain that a student can study the Christian faith without being taught by the a--holes of the left in most religious studies departments.

Grove City is a Christian College that turns out to be the least expensive private university in the nation. It became famous years ago for being the only university to turn down federal student loans because of the strings that were attached (Education Department bureaucrats trying to liberalize the place).

I attended Stanford but I find the place to be incredibly odious now in its politics. I have three children (9, 7, and 3) and I am seriously considering ruling out their attendance at my alma mater. Hillsdale and Grove City are at the top of my list.

13 posted on 11/21/2002 10:06:58 AM PST by tom h
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To: tom h
FYI....Hillsdale does NOT take ANY federal funds, either. I don't think they ever have.
14 posted on 11/21/2002 10:43:23 AM PST by goodnesswins
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To: goodnesswins
I defer to your greater knowledge and to all Freepers, forgive my earlier categorical statement about Grove City being the only college to not accept federal funds.
15 posted on 11/21/2002 9:01:23 PM PST by tom h
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