March 29, 2005

WHERE THE WAR ENDS:

College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds (Howard Kurtz, March 29, 2005, Washington Post)

College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says.

By their own description, 72 percent of those teaching at American universities and colleges are liberal and 15 percent are conservative, says the study being published this week. The imbalance is almost as striking in partisan terms, with 50 percent of the faculty members surveyed identifying themselves as Democrats and 11 percent as Republicans.

The disparity is even more pronounced at the most elite schools, where, according to the study, 87 percent of faculty are liberal and 13 percent are conservative.

"What's most striking is how few conservatives there are in any field," said Robert Lichter, a professor at George Mason University and a co-author of the study. "There was no field we studied in which there were more conservatives than liberals or more Republicans than Democrats. It's a very homogenous environment, not just in the places you'd expect to be dominated by liberals."


The Right has done a reasonably good job of creating alternatives to the liberal media and destroying the credibility of journalism generally, which leaves academia as the final battlefield.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 29, 2005 1:54 PM
Comments

This one is straightforward. Require a competency exam for every graduate who has a federal student loan. Pass and get the zero interest, low monthly payment, and repayment holiday option. Flunk and you pay market rates, on schedule, or your co-signer does.

Posted by: Luciferous at March 29, 2005 2:09 PM

This won't change until the funding system does. Right now, liberal government bureaucrats and peer-review panels of liberal academics are very effective at channeling funds to liberals. And universities exist to consume taxpayer money. To change universities, change the current funding system to one where we have a national Internet directory of academics seeking grants or academic institutions seeking support. Let each taxpayer direct his taxes toward research or financial aid at the researcher or institution of his choice. Universities will become much more responsive to public opinion, and will hire conservatives and Christians as quickly as they can.

Posted by: pj at March 29, 2005 2:40 PM

Boy, Howard is quick on the uptake, isn't he? This was news in, say, 1975 (and was probably true in 1965 as well).

Posted by: jim hamlen at March 29, 2005 2:55 PM

Some years ago a survey of UUAP (American Association of University Professors) members showed 95% on the left and 5% on the right.

That's a lot closer to my experiences in academe.

Posted by: erp at March 29, 2005 2:58 PM

And for this we needed a survey? How many scholarships could have been awarded with the money wasted on this? More importantly, how many conservative professors could have been hired with those funds?

Posted by: oswald booth czolgosz at March 29, 2005 3:08 PM

Thank you Captain Obvious Kurtz. I hear the pope is catholic - you may want to scoop that story too.

Posted by: Shelton at March 29, 2005 3:46 PM

George Mason University itself, as well as smaller colleges like Hillsdale, are the breeding grounds for the future conservative educational institutions.

Posted by: John J. Coupal at March 29, 2005 4:31 PM

Don't forget Hollywood OJ.

Posted by: Genecis at March 30, 2005 1:57 PM
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