We previously discussed how surveys at universities show a virtual purging of conservative and Republican faculty members. Last year, the Harvard Crimson noted that the university had virtually eliminated Republicans from most departments but that the lack of diversity was not a problem. Now, a new survey conducted by the Harvard Crimson shows that more than three-quarters of Harvard Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identify as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 2.5% identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4% as “very conservative.”
A recent Gallup poll stated, “Roughly equal proportions of U.S. adults identified as conservative (36%) and moderate (35%) in Gallup polling throughout 2022, while about a quarter identified as liberal (26%).”
Compare that to this survey, which is consistent with many other schools. Nationally, less than a third of Americans identify as “liberal” but Harvard and other schools show over twice that percentage on the faculty. That does not happen randomly. It takes a consistent culture of intolerance for opposing viewpoints. Indeed, there is a greater percentage of faculty who identify as “very liberal” than citizens overall identify as “liberal.” Less than three percent identify as “conservative’ rather than 35% nationally.
The trend is the result of hiring systems where conservative or libertarian scholars are often rejected as simply “insufficiently intellectually rigorous” or “not interesting” in their scholarship. This can clearly be true with individual candidates but the wholesale reduction of such scholars shows a more systemic problem. Faculty insist that there is no bias against conservatives, but the obviously falling number of conservative faculty speaks for itself.
The editors of the legal site Above the Law have repeatedly swatted down objections to the loss of free speech and viewpoint diversity in the media and academia. In a recent column, they mocked those of us who objected to the virtual absence of conservative or libertarian faculty members at law schools.
Senior editor Joe Patrice defended “predominantly liberal faculties” based on the fact that liberal views reflect real law as opposed to junk law. (Patrice regularly calls those with opposing views “racists,” including Chief Justice John Roberts because of his objection to race-based criteria in admissions as racial discrimination). He explained that hiring a conservative academic was akin to allowing a believer in geocentrism (or that the sun orbits the earth) to teach at a university.
It is that easy. You simply declare that conservative views shared by a majority of the Supreme Court and roughly half of the population are not acceptable to be taught.
I frankly do not understand why professors want to maintain this one-sided environment in hiring. I was drawn to academia by the diversity of viewpoints and intellectual challenges on campuses. School publications and conferences today often run from the left to the far left. We have discussed a long line of incidents on this blog of conservative faculties being targeted by cancel campaigns with tepid support from their colleagues or administrations. We have become the face of intellectual orthodoxy and it is reflected in these numbers.
Harvard supports and encourages diversity in all aspects of campus life. Except, of course, thought.
Unless they have more than one vote….I don’t see how this matters? Are you saying the supreme court who gets clerks from there ideology could be problem? The? Better rule would be polite court just find from within their juridiction. .Farrell in the beginning…..you got in the br your state……who ever upset that lw? ..long the line someone disrupted common lw? Who?
It’s not surprising that nearly all of Harvard Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identified as “liberal” and only 2.9% identified as “conservative” or “very conservative”. Harvard takes “liberal” arts very seriously. Not thinking, mind you; which Harvard considers to be an abhorent practice. Just “liberal” arts.
To rationalize excluding conservatives from academia, the Left uses arguments such as this:
“Having diversity of ideas does not mean that old stupid ideas or ideas that no longer appeal to the majority must be included.”
Such a statement (of which there are countless) reveals how ignorant the Left is about the purpose of education.
Phrenology is an old and stupid idea. Yet that theory most certainly should be taught. Geocentrism is old and stupid. Yet to *not* teach that theory would be educational malpractice.
“Appeal to majority” is not the standard of what should be included or excluded from a college curriculum. That is mob rule, not an objective standard. And if that were the proper standard, the curriculum would be wall-to-wall Kardashians.
Teaching only new and “intelligent” ideas that please the majority is really code for: We, the propagandists, are the new and intelligent. We are the voice of the majority. We will proselytize students. And we will call it “education.”
In other news: “Whenever asked what their opinion is, seventy nine percent of students select ‘Whatever I’m Told’ option if choice is offered in polls.”
In an effort to gain an understanding of the margin of error accuracy of national polls, a leading research company tested a control group of students by adding to each of their multiple-choice opinion questionnaires an option that reads “Whatever I’m told”. Nearly 80% of students then selected this option when asked what their opinion was on any given subject.
The percentage was nearly the same regardless of the topic or subject presented to students.
Two examples:
Q: “What is your opinion on free lunches at university?”
1) Students should receive a free meal
2) Students should bring sack lunches.
3) Students should pay market rate for lunches.
4) Whatever I’m told
Q: “What is your view on free speech on campus?”
1) Everyone has a right to voice their opinion
2) Free speech is racist
3) I have no opinion
4) Whatever I’m told
Curiously, if more than twenty questions were given to students, each having the #4 choice as Whatever I’m Told for the first 20, response times afterward shows that students gave up reading the question and choices and simply marked #4 regardless of content. (and this likely resulted in the result not being 100% (Whatever I’m told) since after 20 guestions, the Whatever I’m Told answer was not used.
Only 75 percent?! I would’ve expected well over 90 percent!
The White House stated that the reason Biden fell today after delivering the commencement address at the Air Force Academy was because he tripped over a sandbag. So who invited his VP and why was she laying down on the stage?
Remember the days when horses would be shot when they found to be lame? It was the merciful way to deal with a lame horse.
Here’s a shocker: Ex-Mayor of Chicago Lightfoot has been hired by Harvard to “teach” this fall.
Harvard seems to be a refuge for failed idiots.
“Shove It Down Her F**king Throat’: Biden Family Knew Hunter Allegedly Molested Close Minor Relative, Text Messages Show”
https://nationalfile.com/shove-it-down-her-fking-throat-biden-family-knew-hunter-allegedly-molested-close-minor-relative-text-messages-show/
Our disgraceful US President has been protecting his pedophile son Hunter from verifiable crimes against a minor