Obviously, people who have studied the world more tend to be more left-wing.
Smugly, Jim Devine, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; web: http://myweb.lmu.edu/jdevine/ > -----Original Message----- > From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Louis > Proyect > Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 7:07 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [PEN-L] Affirmative action for conservatives? > > Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 2004 > Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual > By MARK BAUERLEIN > > Conservatives on college campuses scored a tactical hit when the > American Enterprise Institute's magazine published a survey of voter > registration among humanities and social-science faculty members several > years ago. More than nine out of 10 professors belonged to the > Democratic or Green party, an imbalance that contradicted many liberal > academics' protestations that diversity and pluralism abound in higher > education. Further investigations by people like David Horowitz, > president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, coupled with > well-publicized cases of discrimination against conservative professors, > reinforced the findings and set "intellectual diversity" on the agenda > of state legislators and members of Congress. > > The public has now picked up the message that "campuses are havens for > left-leaning activists," according to a Chronicle poll of 1,000 adult > Americans this year. Half of those surveyed -- 68 percent who call > themselves "conservative" and even 30 percent who say they are "liberal" > -- agreed that colleges improperly introduce a liberal bias into what > they teach. The matter, however, is clearly not just one of perception. > Indeed, in another recent survey, this one conducted by the Higher > Education Research Institute of the University of California at Los > Angeles, faculty members themselves chose as their commitment "far left" > or "liberal" more than two and a half times as often as "far right" or > "conservative." As a Chronicle article last month put it: "On > left-leaning campuses around the country, professors on the right feel > disenfranchised." > > Yet while the lack of conservative minds on college campuses is > increasingly indisputable, the question remains: Why? > > full: > http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=56a4b06e77oshwaiq5psszuc2gti5ne b > > === > > Columbia Spectator, Nov. 10, 2004 > > Opinion > > STAFF EDITORIAL: A Call for Conservatism > > Columbia professors are overwhelmingly liberal-that should come as no > surprise to any student. > > Although the business school, economics department, and political > science department have a conservative presence, conservative professors > are noticeably absent from history, philosophy, and the rest of the > humanities departments. This lack of contrarian voices is harming > Columbia's ability to produce fully educated liberal arts students. By > not having a conservative voice hawk its wares in the hue and cry of the > academic marketplace, Columbia is failing its students. > > While conservatives are minorities in faculties across the country, > almost all of Columbia's peer institutions have some strongly > conservative humanities professors. The Hoover Institution at Stanford > is a mecca for conservative thinkers of all stripes. Niall Ferguson, a > history professor at NYU, Harvey Mansfield, a government professor at > Harvard, Donald Kagan, a classics professor at Yale, and Robert P. > George, a jurisprudence professor at Princeton, are all right-leaning > professors who teach very popular classes at their respective > universities. The intellectual iconoclasm that drives these professors > manifests itself in their contributions to campus debates. For instance, > Mansfield, an outspoken opponent of grade inflation, offers two grades > for undergraduates: an official, inflated grade for the registrar, and a > private, much lower grade for the student. Who at Columbia would not > appreciate a professor so willing to visibly challenge campus orthodoxy? > > In all other areas of campus life, students do not hesitate to call for > diversity. There is no reason why these same arguments should not apply > to conservative professors in the humanities. > > full: > <http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/09/4190416 fa > 19ec?in_archive=1> > > > -- > > The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
