Politics in Academia: Questions for LCK Readers
If you are a current or former college student, try to think about all of the professors that you have taken over the years. On which side of the political spectrum do you believe most of them fall? If your experience was, or is, like that of most American students, you’ll find that the majority of them were either explicitly liberal, or at least gave you that general impression. Traditional logic says that the Ivory Towers are, in most cases, a Leftist stronghold, and empirical data is beginning to show that this may be the case, particularly within certain disciplines.
In the February 22, 2008 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education, there is an article spotlighting the work of a married couple, Dr. Matthew Woessner and Dr. April Kelly-Woessner, both of whom are professors, looking into why there is a gap between the number of liberals and conservatives in academia. What is particularly interesting is that Matthew, an assistant professor of public policy at Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, is a conservative, while April, associate professor of political science at Elizbethtown College, is a liberal. Later this year, they will be publishing a piece titled “Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates” in an American Enterprise Institute book. Seeing two people from opposite ends of the political spectrum come together professionally (not to mention the fact that they are married) is very refreshing in the increasingly polarized political environment in which we have found ourselves. Their work is integral to the discussion of politics within the academic world. Everyone should check out their forthcoming paper, “Left Pipeline,” which can be found here (pdf) (great thanks to the Woessners for linking permission). It may be of particular interest to those of you who consider yourself “far left” or “far right.”
As the Woessners’ paper explains, there is a wide array of possible explanations for why this phenomenon occurs. It could be personality differences between liberals and conservatives that lead them into different fields of study. Maybe conservatives are more achievement-oriented, and therefore predisposed to the professional majors, like accounting and computer science. Or, its possible that the liberal environment on many American campuses dissuades conservatives from pursuing a doctorate and the life of a professor. Conservatives may have a stronger desire to make more money and raise a family, desires that may not be compatible with a career in academics. The answer isn’t entirely clear, yet. What is clear, however, is that the reason there are more liberal professors does not relate to intelligence or performance in school. It’s not, as I am sure many of you are eager to conclude, because conservatives are stupid.
My intention in publishing this post is to ask some questions of our readers, and hopefully start a discussion on the role of politics in academia. I would like to see what your personal opinions on the issue are, and how, if at all, the political ideology of your professors influenced your experiences. Again, if your not entirely familiar with the issue, I would highly recommend the Woessner paper linked above. If you want a more fiery and partisan take on the topic, check out David Horowitz’s Students For Academic Freedom website (caveat: there are some pretty extreme ideas being promulgated on the SFAF site (i.e. “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week”), and personally, Horowitz turns my stomach, although his Academic Bill of Rights is worth reading into).
So, if you’ve got a few extra minutes and want to add to this conversation, here are a few questions to answer in the comments section below this post:
1. Have you, or did you, notice that your college professors were, in general, more liberal or conservative? If so, which one?
2. What do you think best explains the disparity between the number of liberals and conservatives who pursue doctorates and go on to be college professors? Is there one good answer, or is it a combination of many factors?
3. Do a professor’s ideological convictions have a serious influence on their job as academics and teachers? If a professor actively tries to keep his or her politics out of the classroom, is that enough to prevent bias from influencing the way material is presented or how they interact with their students?
4. For conservative readers: Did, or do you, feel isolated or discriminated against because of your ideological beliefs? Does it seem that special preferences are given to liberal students or that their opportunities for post-graduate studies are greater?
5. For liberal readers: Do explicitly liberal professors ever seem to appreciate your presence in their class more because you agree with them ideologically? Is all this talk of bias against conservatives just delusion?
6. For everyone: Do you feel that your political beliefs relate in away way to the major, and therefore the career that you chose?
Hopefully we’ll get some good comments, and maybe some vicious arguments going here. I look forward to it.
on February 19th, 2008 at
LCK,
I think you see more liberal personalities in things like journalism and education, because by the traditional meaning of liberal, you seek to change things. Education and media are a good place to do that.
I don’t fall neatly into a conservative or liberal moniker, but I majored in engineering at college and I would say political opinions amongst the students had little to do with that sort of a career decision. I went to a left-leaning school but I certainly didn’t feel “disriminated” against, and I’m still unclear why many seek to have their views disciminated against in a fit of self-martyrdom. I just had to be defensive at times, but it’s fun to be the oddball at parties. =)
on February 20th, 2008 at
LCK–hope your readers will also check out the Free Exchange on Campus Site–particularly the Horowitz Fact Checker if they are going to be reading DHo’s perspectives on things. We are at: www.freeexchangeoncampus.org.
on February 20th, 2008 at
LT Nixon,
I think you’re right that certain majors naturally involve more political ideology than others. “But it’s fun to be the oddball at parties,” great comment… I hope the arguments never got too intense.
cps @ Free Exchange,
Thanks for posting the link to Free Exchange on Campus. You are completely right that the readers should be taking a look at that site too to balance out the views on SFAF. I’m sorry I didn’t post it myself… purely oversight on my part.
on February 20th, 2008 at
People have been able to have differences of opinion in a civil manner for centuries, and even be friends! But some folks are slow on the uptake, I can assure you.
on February 21st, 2008 at
I graduated from Vanderbilt in 1981 and I write this to assure younger readers that the dominance of the left in academia is not a recent phenomenon. A slight majority of my professors were apolitical, at least in the classroom, but of those who either consciously or not let us know about their political preferences, 99% were on the left, and this at a relatively conservative, southern university.
My Econ professors were all Keynesians, as fond of government intervention as they were skeptical of supply side, and they constantly let us know it. Many were openly admiring of what they thought were communist economic “achievements” and chose texts that reflected this view. With one exception, my history teachers were solidly to the left. I can still remember the professor who, although he agreed my paper was well written and my points well argued, knocked me down a grade because I had not reached his liberal conclusion, so it was obvious that I “hadn’t learned anything.” That taught me a lesson, and I spent the remainder of my time at Vandy parroting back their PC nonsense whenever I deemed it unhealthy for my GPA to do so.
As to why this is so. I’m sure there is some truth to the notion that liberals are more predisposed toward academic life. But I think the real reason is that PHD candidates get a real hard look at the academic world before they make their final, career decisions. Anyone actually bright enough to succeed can see very plainly that honestly expressing conservative views would result in long term career suicide. Most, I suspect, quietly decide they can find better careers for themselves before they waste too much time.
on February 21st, 2008 at
VRWC,
Thanks for commenting. First of all, I think its deplorable that you would ever receive a lower grade simply because you did not agree ideologically with your professor. I hope that both liberals and conservatives can agree on that. If there is to be any meaningful learning during the college experience, students should be not only permitted to express contradictory and unpopular views, but should be encouraged to do so.
However, if there is one academic discipline, that, at least in my experience, is not weighted to left these days, it’s economics. I wonder how many of your Keynesian professors are still teaching, because today I think they would be the outcasts. For example, the world’s most popular economics text book used for college level classes today is Principles of Economics, by N. Gregory Mankiw. It is incredibly Neoliberal in its outlook, and it’s entirely opposed to anything but completely free markets. It’s a far cry from Keynes. Mankiw is a former advisor to George W. Bush and until recently worked for the Romney campaign. I only point out Mankiw and his textbook because it is so widely used, and in that way, is indicative of the state of economics studies today. If a student were to openly endorse communist or Marxist economic philosophy today, I feel they would be the ones receiving the unfair grades. I’m sure there are still a few left-wing economics professors out there, but their numbers, it seems to me, are not quite like they were at Vanderbilt in 81′.
on February 21st, 2008 at
Alex,
I am very glad to hear about the Mankiw textbook and the state of economics teaching in general. When I was in school, Paul Samuelson’s textbook was the overwhelming choice for Econ 101 and not only was it skeptical of free markets but versions of it contained positive references to communist theory almost untiI the fall of the Berlin Wall. I have always hoped that Thomas Sowell’s economic texts would find a foothold, and one of these days soon I’m going to be making a donation of them in bulk to my children’s school.
I should add that although my econ professors were liberal, beyond Econ 101 the vast majority of them stuck to real teaching and left their politics at the door. Their views showed through almost exclusively when the then hot subjects of tax policy and energy regulation came up, but the anti market bias was real enough. You must understand that I was an economic libertarian from birth and this was prior to the Reagan Revolution. Very few students understood yet that there was any doctrine opposing Keynes, but the Professors knew and they didn’t like it one bit.
The incident with my paper was real enough, but it was the only problem I had in the Econ Department. Most of my truly horrible PC Profs were in History, and, shudder, Sociology, and even they were decent people, they just weren’t used to hearing Robert Bartley and William F. Buckley quoted in their classrooms.
Other than doing business with a few endowments, I have had nothing to do with academia since graduating, so my views may be skewed by what seems to be an awful lot of noise involving the English, Sociology and Women’s Studies Departments. My views may also be affected by my opinion of economic education in general in this country.
If we do indeed teach free markets better in college these days, we still seem to be graduating an awful lot of Socialists.
Enjoyed your write up…hope you get a good response.
Best Regards,