Posted on 07/03/2008 4:43:43 AM PDT by shrinkermd
...Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors who many of the nearly 50 academics interviewed by The New York Times believe are different from their predecessors — less ideologically polarized and more politically moderate
...Solon Simmons at George Mason University found that the notion of a generational divide is more than a glancing impression. “Self-described liberals are most common within the ranks of those professors aged 50-64, who were teenagers or young adults in the 1960s,” they wrote, making up just under 50 percent. At the same time, the youngest group, ages 26 to 35, contains the highest percentage of moderates, some 60 percent, and the lowest percentage of liberals, just under a third
...The authors are not talking about a political realignment. Democrats continue to overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans among faculty, young and old. But as educators have noted, the generation coming up appears less interested in ideological confrontations, summoning Barack Obama’s statement about the elections of 2000 and 2004: “I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago — played out on the national stage.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors……who have been picked by those very same Maoist baby boomers, unfortunately.
Journalistic head-fake.
Now, some of the radical departments---I won't name names---still hire overwhelmingly leftists. But it's still a remarkable shift.
Not entirely. I’ve noticed a change when we’ve done interviews for positions in the last five years. It used to be 90/10. Now it’s closer to 70-30 or 60-40.
If that is in a history department, it is welcome news.
Exactly. Despite claims to the contrary, the academics who preceeded the Baby Boomer liberals were really fair & open minded—or they wouldn’t have hired people spouting this drivel. Those hired since these liberals took control of the academic departments have had to toe the ideological line or they were toast. That means that most of these people are as bad or worse.
Most of the first boomer wave couldn’t have cared less about gay rights, paid lip service to “diversity”, and still had a healthy respect for the classics (at least back then). Now the current generations of academics is hell bent on things like transgender studies, diversity at any cost (e.g., anyone but a caucasian), and riding the curriculum of “dead white males”. Can’t wait to see what it will be like in 20 years. Well, that’s what being “progressive” is all about.
Finally the accursed 60s leftists are dying off... it will take another 40 years to rid ourselves of their legacy.
‘Bout F’n time!!!
Interesting article. Remember these statistics reveal what the academics self-identify themselves as. So while fewer academics may self-identify themselves as liberals, and more call themselves ‘moderates’, I’m not so sure that actual views have moderated. Although fewer might identify with New Deal or Great Society policies, or view the world along Cold War ideaological lines, I doubt the actual views of academics on specific issues have ‘moderated’. In fact, if you asked them questions like ‘Should same sex couples have the right to marry?’, ‘Do private citizens have a right to keep and bear arms?’, ‘Should Arab nations guarantee Israel the right to exist within secure borders?’, or ‘Is America in general a force for good in the world?’, I suspect one might find that the younger generation of academics is more radical than their predecessars.
It will take time - a long time - to change the imbalance. The good news is, things are slowly swinging back in our direction.
One generation passing, does not mean let your guard down. I say sprinkle boric acid liberally in the halls, make sure you get all the crevices.
Praise
God, the old hippies are fading away........
Their replacements are are well trained, ready and eager to continue their Socialist ways.
A political moderate is someone who has yet to decide they will vote for the liberals.
On the other hand, there are the two young black guys who have been talking about Obama for about a year now. sigh. Glad it's summertime 'cause I was close to [STERNLY TALKING TO] one of them.
that’s not in california.
university slime i see are mostly socialists and at least democrats.
in my field academics are uniformly anti-free market.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.