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Liberal bias seeping into students' college education
The Reveille (Louisiana State U.) ^ | 1/29/03 | Jason Dore

Posted on 01/30/2003 12:49:03 PM PST by NorCoGOP

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Thousands of dollars, late nights spent buried in textbooks, early classes and sleepless finals weeks: all these sacrifices made for what end? Common sense would tell you these things would help you gain a college education and allow you to make a better life for yourself. But frequently students endure classroom atmospheres that are slanted toward a professor's world view and then face a myriad of consequences for offering a differing opinion.

The long-standing pillars of higher education always have been academic freedom, intellectual honesty and the freedom of expression. Recently diversity has become a key goal of higher education, too. These things are meant to foster an educational experience that encourages freedom of thought and an education formed by critical thinking.

Modern college courses often lose those educational principles when professors fail to balance their political agendas with opposing views and ignore facts in favor of opinion. Universities search high and low for faculty members of different races, genders and sexual preferences, but diversity of thought is never given much consideration. Only diversity in the professors' sociopolitical philosophies would give you differing views on issues such as abortion, capitalism and religion.

Studies continue to show that while universities seek diversity as a priority, the dominance of liberal professors continues to grow. Last year UCLA's Higher Education Research institute polled 32,000 full-time undergraduate professors. It found that 48 percent identified as "liberal" or "far left" while only 18 percent described themselves as "conservative" or "far right."

Typically professors who prescribe to a conservative philosophy end up teaching classes in the hard sciences. Paul Kengor detailed a recent study he conducted in an issue of Policy Review in which he examined the political makeup of 190 social science and humanities professors at many of the nation's top universities, such as Cornell, Stanford and the University of Colorado. Only six Republicans were found while 184 were registered Democrats. These are the classes where professors can indoctrinate students with their views on politics, religion, morality and other subjects.

Some say a professor's political ideology does not impact how they approach the classroom. While some professors are capable of putting aside their agendas, examples of bias can be found at nearly every university.

By all accounts, conservatives make up the vast amount of LSU's student body. But even here, there are few conservative professors in the social sciences and humanities. I have heard numerous complaints from Christians who took classes to learn more about their faith but instead were treated to daily attacks on their beliefs. We also have professors that have taken to political activism, such as a political science professor who spoke at many rallies opposing war in Iraq.

At the University of California- San Diego, one parent was so alarmed that her son's professor was attempting to indoctrinate the classroom that she formed an organization. She founded a Web site called www.noindoctrination.org. The site is dedicated to reporting and confronting professors who attempt this kind of indoctrination. Students are allowed to report professors anonymously and must describe in detail the teacher's behavior. Since the site's birth four months ago, complaints have been filed against teachers from more than 30 universities, including the University of Kentucky and University of Georgia.

Students detail how, time after time, professors introduce topics not included on the course description, squelch opposing opinions in discussion, misrepresent facts and encourage students to adopt the professor's point of view. A senior at UCSD detailed how he wrote a paper espousing a pro-life view that was picked apart. He rewrote it with a pro-choice stance and received an A.

Cases of obvious bias are troubling enough, but when a teacher's opinion is taught as fact, students become indoctrinated without ever realizing they were taught lies. This often is the case in history classes when teachers present an unhistorical account of people or events.

With the lack of accountability in the classroom and balance in teachers' views, how are students to trust the education they receive? Are they merely becoming indoctrinated members of the liberal left?

Accountability is needed. Web sites such as noindoctrination.org offer students a venue to air their grievances, which will hopefully usher in change. Administrators should encourage balanced views to be presented in the classroom and punish those who use it as a political soapbox. With a university culture that is so in love with diversity and promoting it through affirmative action programs, maybe we should consider adding conservatives to the list of those who receive special minority consideration.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: academialist; collegebias; highereducation
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1 posted on 01/30/2003 12:49:03 PM PST by NorCoGOP
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To: *Academia list
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
2 posted on 01/30/2003 12:52:13 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
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To: NorCoGOP
American professors: So many clueless students, so little time.....
3 posted on 01/30/2003 12:53:08 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: anniegetyourgun
As a college student myself, I can see where you're coming from. I think the best remedy is to just ignore those liberal profs and spend lots of time on Free Republic. ;)
I am also an English student, so my classes are only taught by libs. Sometimes I feel like ramming my head into a wall.
4 posted on 01/30/2003 1:00:32 PM PST by emiloch
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To: NorCoGOP
Liberal bias seeping into students' college education

SEEPING
Excuse me but it been gushing for the last 35 years or more
5 posted on 01/30/2003 1:02:38 PM PST by uncbob
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To: emiloch
And sadly, it's all such yesterday's news, em. I was ramming my head into a campus wall even back in the 70's. It's a miracle that we have any conservatives left in the population, after so many years of this bias that passes as education.
6 posted on 01/30/2003 1:02:53 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: NorCoGOP
The American education was taken over by the liberal/socialist crowd a long time ago; dating back to at least the late 50s. The NEA was/is one of America's worst internal enemies and one of the primary reasons so many of our youth are clueless when it comes to issues of honor, dignity, morality, and ethics.
7 posted on 01/30/2003 1:05:21 PM PST by MoGalahad
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To: anniegetyourgun
It's a miracle any walls are left standing.
When I had an abortive semester at college, there was a certain ultra-liberal prof there that liked to hit on the men attending her class. As well as try and indoctrinate everyone.
She taught intro to business. You'd think she'd get it that taxes are bad....

There were a few lockers in that building that had deep dents in them from other conservatives (and myself)using them as a buffer between their heads and the wall.
8 posted on 01/30/2003 1:06:48 PM PST by Darksheare (<----- Has taken first skywhale flight to an alternate dimension.)
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To: NorCoGOP
read later
9 posted on 01/30/2003 1:12:49 PM PST by LiteKeeper
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To: NorCoGOP
"seeping"

They must be kidding - it's been a roaring FLOOD for years!!
10 posted on 01/30/2003 1:19:51 PM PST by CyberAnt ( Syracuse where are you?)
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To: All
Since a lot of our colleges and universities are publicly funded...maybe its about time we require intellectual and political diversity among the professors and admin.

We pay taxes to fund state schools to indoctrinate people to a hate-America, hate-God, hate-Hetero agenda. We should demand this being stopped.

RWK
11 posted on 01/30/2003 1:20:05 PM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (UCFRW)
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To: Jeff Head
More evidence that many colleges have become sewers of liberal effluent
12 posted on 01/30/2003 1:35:29 PM PST by harpseal (Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown)
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To: NorCoGOP
I have a freind who is currently taking an arts/athestics class. Among other things, she has to watch 5 movies. When she showed me the list of required movies, I just groaned because the main topic of all of them is how awful white people are and how they have discriminated and killed this group and that group and so on. It all gets very tiresome.

Last semester I helped a friend write an English paper about an essay she had to read. The subject was Barbie Dolls and how they empower women. I'm not kidding. It was very difficult to write without wanting to throw-up. It also made me wonder what ever happened to traditional English literature.

13 posted on 01/30/2003 1:38:56 PM PST by DBtoo
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To: NorCoGOP
"seeping???" Liberal distortion in academia became a tidal wave half a century ago.
14 posted on 01/30/2003 1:42:19 PM PST by IronJack
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To: DBtoo
It doesn't exist anymore. Nothing regarding Western Culture exists anymore in these so-called universities.

It's just as bad on the high-school level. You would think that students who went through high school could figure out that they'd be in for more of the same in college (and paying through the nose for it) since that silliness trickles down and they can see how it affects their high school teachers.

15 posted on 01/30/2003 1:52:49 PM PST by ladylib
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: NorCoGOP
http://diversityofthought.com

a campaign to get more diversity of thought in our campuses!
17 posted on 01/30/2003 2:05:45 PM PST by mansion
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To: Libertarianize the GOP
Liberal bias seeping FLOODS into students' college education
18 posted on 01/30/2003 2:08:46 PM PST by cinFLA
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To: CyberAnt
At lease since '64. The search for knownledge is neverending. Lib. College Prof. with tenure,
they stop learning... they become relics.
19 posted on 01/30/2003 2:12:17 PM PST by skinkinthegrass (Just be because your paranoid,doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. :)
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To: NorCoGOP
Liberal bias seeping into students' college education

SEEPING? It's been POURING in for 35 years!

20 posted on 01/30/2003 2:24:54 PM PST by JimRed
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