FACULTY TILT
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Autor: Bruce Bartlett
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Fuente: National Review Online
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This
is
the
time
of
year
when
millions
of
parents
send
their
children
off
to
universities.
Unfortunately,
one
price
of
getting
one’s
children
into
a
top
school
these
days
is
that
they
may
be
subjected
to
four
years
of
liberal
propaganda.
Those
in
academia
like
to
call
the
liberal
orientation
of
most
college
faculty
a
red
herring.
But
objective
research
continually
shows
that
it
is
not.
The
latest
data
appear
in
the
Aug.
29
issue
of
the
Chronicle
of
Higher
Education.
A
solid
majority
of
those
teaching
at
both
public
and
private
universities
described
themselves
as
being
either
liberal
or
far
left.
Less
than
a
third
considered
themselves
middle
of
the
road
and
just
15
percent
said
they
were
conservative.
Not
surprisingly,
50
percent
of
the
general
public
considers
college
professors
to
be
more
liberal
than
they
are.
Interestingly,
this
puts
most
faculty
members
well
to
the
left
of
their
students.
According
to
the
same
source,
less
than
28
percent
of
them
would
be
classified
as
liberal
or
far
left.
More
than
half
consider
themselves
to
be
middle
of
the
road,
and
21
percent
say
they
are
conservative.
A
new
Gallup
poll
suggests
that
this
may
even
understate
the
case.
It
found
that
29
percent
of
those
age
18
to
24
consider
themselves
to
be
conservatives,
with
just
30
percent
saying
they
are
liberals.
The
Chronicle
is
not
the
first
to
document
the
leftist
orientation
of
most
university
faculty.
A
survey
by
pollster
Frank
Luntz
last
year
found
that
just
3
percent
of
Ivy
League
professors
called
themselves
Republicans,
with
57
percent
belonging
to
the
Democratic
party.
Among
those
voting
in
the
2000
election,
Al
Gore
captured
84
percent
of
their
votes.
Just
9
percent
voted
for
George
W.
Bush,
barely
more
than
the
6
percent
who
voted
for
Ralph
Nader.
Among
the
population
as
a
whole,
the
vote
for
president
was
almost
evenly
split
between
Bush
and
Gore.
The
irony
here
is
that
unlike
almost
all
other
workers
in
society,
university
professors
are
granted
tenure
—
a
lifetime
job
from
which
it
is
almost
impossible
to
be
fired
—
precisely
in
order
to
guarantee
freedom
of
expression.
But
in
practice,
the
tenure
process
has
become
the
means
by
which
the
Left
rigorously
weeds
out
conservatives.
In
many
university
departments,
opposition
from
a
single
faculty
member
is
all
that
is
necessary
to
deny
tenure.
These
days,
such
a
blackball
is
most
likely
to
be
used
against
a
conservative,
especially
in
disciplines
such
as
sociology,
history,
English,
and
government.
Prof.
Robert
Maranto
of
Villanova
discussed
this
insidious
practice
in
the
Baltimore
Sun
on
July
31.
“While
colleges
strive
for
ethnic
diversity,”
he
wrote,
“they
actively
oppose
ideological
diversity.”
The
result
is
a
lack
of
meaningful
debate
on
campuses
that
makes
corporate
boardrooms
a
model
of
give-and-take.
The
reason
is
that
in
business,
those
who
keep
out
new
ideas
lose
market
share
to
competitors.
“But
within
the
ivory
tower,
professors
can
hold
dumb
ideas
for
decades
with
no
accountability,”
Maranto
notes.
Recently,
there
has
been
an
effort
in
Colorado
to
bring
some
accountability
to
the
state’s
public
universities
and
break
the
left-wing
stranglehold
over
them.
Gov.
Bill
Owens,
a
Republican,
has
publicly
complained
about
the
lack
of
political
diversity
on
state
campuses:
“I
think
that
if
you’re
in
a
political
science
department,
we
ought
to
strive
to
make
sure
that
there
are
people
who
understand
and
who
can
explain
political
philosophy
from
the
left
as
well
as
from
the
right.”
According
to
the
Denver
Post,
of
the
78
political
science
professors
at
state
colleges
in
Colorado,
45
are
registered
Democrats
and
just
9
are
Republicans.
This
means
that
it
is
very
unlikely
that
a
political
science
student
will
ever
hear
the
subject
taught
by
a
Republican.
In
math,
science,
and
many
other
subjects,
this
doesn’t
matter.
But
in
political
science
it
does.
Students
are
simply
not
getting
a
complete
education
in
the
field
if
they
only
hear
one
side
to
every
political
issue.
Predictably,
the
universities
scream
bloody
murder
at
any
suggestion
of
adding
conservatives
to
their
faculties
in
order
to
improve
diversity
of
opinion.
They
are
all
for
quotas
when
it
means
admitting
unqualified
minority
students,
but
allowing
students
to
be
taught
by
a
conservative
would
somehow
be
a
violation
of
everything
the
university
stands
for,
it
seems.
Of
course,
universities
are
right
when
they
say
that
quotas
are
no
answer
to
the
problem
of
liberal
bias
on
campus
—
just
as
they
are
not
the
answer
to
improving
minority
enrollment.
On
the
other
hand,
the
taxpayers
of
Colorado
are
within
their
rights
to
demand
accountability
for
the
$817
million
they
will
generously
give
the
state’s
public
universities
this
year.
It
is
reasonable
for
them
to
ask
that
they
be
more
than
subsidiaries
of
the
Democratic
National
Committee.
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