UNLV Professor: Republican Too Stupid To Teach

Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | 3-23-04 | editorial

[Nevadan]

EDITORIAL: Too stupid to teach?

UNLV professor says Republican Party now a haven of slope-browed troglodytes

Back in 2002, a survey by the American Enterprise Institute found America's colleges and universities to be a virtually monochrome refuge of the political left. More than 80 percent of most schools' employees were found to be registered Democrats, despite the almost even split between registered Republicans and Democrats among the public at large.

The AEI report found one consequence of this lack of diversity was that conservative thinkers tend to be isolated and intimidated on American campuses, with the predictable result that they do not fare as well when it comes time to seek tenure.

Thus it was hardly a surprise when two UNLV student groups -- Students for Academic Freedom and the UNLV College Libertarians -- released a report March 12 revealing that the faculty in a number of UNLV departments are more liberal than those at Berkeley.

Authors of the study selected professors from seven UNLV departments: civil engineering, economics, English, history, philosophy, political science and sociology. And the students found no registered Republicans at all in some departments, including history, economics and sociology.

When asked why so few Republicans seem to inhabit the academic environment, Ted Jelen, a UNLV professor of political science, told CityLife: "Liberals are smarter."

"I'm quite serious," Mr. Jelen said. "The Republican Party has taken some outrageous positions on issues like abortion and free speech, and has in effect priced itself out of the intellectual market."

Yes, it's a natural part of human nature to suspect those who haven't adopted our own political philosophy are simply too slow-witted to grasp our arguments.

But consider for a moment how successful the free market has proven in generating wealth, technological progress and high standards of living in the Western world over the past 500 years, and how miserably the competing doctrine of socialism worked out in Eastern Europe in the 20th century. Given that reality, the burden is surely on those who still cling to the failed doctrine of mandatory redistribution to prove they're not either intellectually impaired or excessively buffered from the realities of a world where the "needs" of the mendicant class can never be met, no matter how much income of the productive class is seized and thrown into the statist wood-chipper.

And when it comes to "free speech," Mr. Jelen surely knows most of the cases investigated and litigated these days by the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) involve conservative professors or students running afoul of the new "speech codes" erected by the forces of "political correctness" on the left.

No one is yet proposing the "affirmative action" hiring of conservatives, constitutionalists, free marketers and libertarians at UNLV, in search of some arbitrary target of "equity" ... though the prospect would be delicious, in its way.

For if the imbalance stood the other way, does anyone doubt that's precisely the kind of remedy good liberals such as professor Jelen would be demanding?

[Blood of Tyrants]

More reasons you don't see Republicans on campus is a) you can get better pay in the real world and b) if you let your political affialiation be known, you will be labled as "antagonstic" and they will invent a reason to fire you before you reach tenure.

[Eva]

The truth is that liberals (leftists) live in a utopian dream world where they can withdraw from the reality of competition except on a very academic level. Leftist academics are blind to their own inadequacies and lack the will to even compete on an even academic playing field with conservatives, thus the enforcement of Orwellian speech control.

[Calpernia]

Ping

[keysguy]

When the liberals teaching at colleges actually have to perform, have to teach any subject matter and prove that the students have learned it, then you will see more conservative instructors. Those conservatives who do volunteer will be the ones who taught me in college, retired business people. Left wing instructors of today are basicaly deadheads that could never make it in the free enterprise system, so they teach. It's a major problem, it takes the average graduating student several years before they figure out have been hoodwinked by left-wing philosophers in college and at exhorbitant prices.

[Constantine XIII]

You know, someone should do a similar study of Ph.D. and M.S. holders who work and do research for businesses, in other words, people who have daily contact with the "real world."

I'm sure that one would find a similar, if not quite so lopsided, skew to the right.

[cynicom]

There is a good reason that academicians invented tenure. Trying to remember what it is.

[Eva]

The old saying, those who can do, those who can't teach, is more true today than ever. As I have said many times, the quality of public school education is inversely proportionate to the growth of the NEA.

I have an idea that does a kind of end around on the NEA. I propose a two tier structure of teachers, one a professional level, the other the union level. The professional level could draw from the pool of unemployed professionals in various fields as well as experienced teachers. They would be paid the same hourly rate as the union teachers, but they would work a regular work day and not have summers off, so their yearly pay would be quite good. The students would have the option of completing high school in less time, or taking extra studies in the arts or sciences.

[joesnuffy]

Another political comment from the land of Upsidaisium

[Brilliant]

It makes sense that someone like this would be able to find employment only on the government payroll.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***slope-browed troglodytes ***

Hey, I resemble that remark!

[Reo]

And of course everyone knows UNLV is a bastion of cutting edge intellectual activity (sarcasm "off"!)

[RippleFire]

Ted's obviously the sharpest knife in the drawer:

More at http://www.unlv.edu/Colleges/Liberal_Arts/Political_Science/jelen.html including Contact Professor Jelen

[SERE_DOC]

"UNLV professor says Republican Party now a haven of slope-browed troglodytes"

And the people in the real world agree that UNLV professors are too stupid to breed but that doesn't seem to matter. The proliferation of inbreeding among liberal academics has given rise the proposition that just because you have an advanced degree doesn't mean they're smart but rather the fact they pissed away all that money and can't get a real job.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Another reason could be related to my tagline; too many people w/very high IQs (presumably professors here) have almost no common sense. Lefties generally use twisted logic whereas common sense would steer them otherwise; they don't typically have much common sense!

[elfman2]

""Liberals are smarter." "

I’m sure it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist or a million dollars to do a study comparing IQ and voter registration to disprove this.

[keysguy]

Your idea is too well thought out makes too much sense and would probably work, therefore it will never fly in the world of unions first and teaching students way down the line that we currently live in.

[Redcoat LI]

"Ted G. Jelen earned his B.A. from Knox College in 1974, M.A. From Ohio State University in 1977; and Ph.D from Ohio State n 1979."

With Academic credentials like that,and a post at a school in Las Vegas,he shouldn't be calling anybody stupid.

[P.O.E.]

So I'm a member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy AND the Jimmy Castor Bunch?