At 05:43 PM 3/28/2005, Michael Hoover wrote:
Capitol bill aims to control 'leftist' profs
THE LAW COULD LET STUDENTS SUE FOR UNTOLERATED BELIEFS.
<...>
House Bill H-837 can be viewed online at www.flsenate.gov
<http://www.flsenate.gov>;.
This just in to add fuel to the fire. From the Chronicle of Higher Ed:
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Conservative Professors Are Less Likely to Advance in Academe, Study Finds
By PIPER FOGG
A report released this week offers evidence that American academe is
dominated by political liberals, and that conservatives are less likely to
attain jobs at top colleges. The report, based on a study that relied on
data from a fairly large sample of institutions, is the first to attempt to
answer the question of whether conservatives in academe face discrimination
in hiring.
Published in The Forum, a journal of applied research in contemporary
politics, the report is based on a 1999 survey of 1,643 faculty members at
183 colleges and universities in the United States. The study was conducted
by Stanley Rothman, a professor emeritus of government at Smith College; S.
Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a
research group affiliated with George Mason University and supported by
conservative foundations; and Neil Nevitte, a professor of political
science at the University of Toronto.
Stephen H. Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, an
advocacy group that supports tradition-minded education, hailed the report
as groundbreaking. "It's the first time that a rigorous social-science
study has brought forth strong evidence" for discrimination against
conservatives in academic hiring, he said.
The report also says that over the past several decades academe has become
increasingly liberal, and that liberals outnumber conservatives even in
disciplines like economics, which are often perceived as more-conservative
fields.
The study examined the correlation between the quality of professors'
academic affiliations (measured using U.S. News & World Report rankings and
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifications) and
three measures of ideological orientation: self-identification on a
"right-left" scale, political-party designation, and self-reported
attitudes concerning abortion, the environment, and several other political
and ideological topics.
Ideology Ranks Second
According to the study, academic achievement -- measured by such variables
as how many articles, chapters, and books a scholar has published and the
amount of time spent on research -- mattered most in determining the level
of institution at which a professor teaches. But ideology was the
second-most-important factor.
"The ideological orientations of professors are about one-fifth as
important as their professional achievements in determining the quality of
the school that hires and retains or promotes them," says the report. After
taking professional achievement into account, the study showed that being a
Republican or conservative significantly reduces the predicted quality of
the college where a scholar teaches. Women and Christians, it also
concluded, are similarly disadvantaged.
"We did validate the notion that conservatives are discriminated against,"
Mr. Rothman said in an interview. "No one has ever done that before."
But Roger W. Bowen, president of the American Association of University
Professors, said the study's methodology is "suspect" because the sample
size of the survey was too small. "It's difficult to determine its value,"
he said.
Mr. Bowen also said the study does not take into account other theories
about why there may be fewer conservatives in academe: that conservatives
may self-select themselves out of academe, or that "the intellectual cream
rises to the top." Even if there are many more liberals than conservatives
in academe, he added, "So what? What difference does it make to students?"
In the report's conclusion, the authors acknowledge that the results are
"preliminary," but say that conservatives' complaints of the practical
effects of what they see as liberal bias in academe deserve to be taken
seriously.
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