College Climate Surveys Needed to Understand Free Expression on Campus

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | February 26, 2020 | Pete Peterson

[karpov]

In yet another window into the country’s polarized political environment, in 2017 the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans regarding their views of major civic institutions. While there were divisions in how Republicans and Democrats viewed churches, banks, and labor unions, the largest gap was reserved for “colleges and universities,” with 72 percent of Democrats viewing them positively versus 58 percent of Republicans having the opposite opinion.

Many on the left took the results as an illustration of a supposed broader anti-intellectualism on the right. Looking at the survey outcomes, Salon’s Sophia Tesfaye wondered, “Has America hit peak anti-intellectualism?” Citing the Pew study, the New Republic’s Graham Vyse wrote an op-ed with the blaring headline, “Liberals Can’t Ignore the Right’s Hatred for Academia.”

As a conservative, and dean of one of America’s few center-right graduate schools, I share the concern many on the left have regarding those and other survey results. Since our nation’s founding and prior, higher education has been one of America’s great civic institutions, preparing citizens for public service and leadership. But as professors Jon Shields and Joshua Dunn found in their nationwide study of conservative academics, Passing on the Right, “Progressives rule higher education. Their rule is not absolute, but conservatives are scarcer in academia than in just about any other major profession, including the entertainment industry.”

But faculty are only one part of the academic environment. Increasingly, college and university administrators implement policies with political biases. In a recent survey of student-facing college staff, Samuel Abrams of Sarah Lawrence College found that 71 percent said they were “liberal/very liberal” while only 6 percent were “conservative.” “It appears that a fairly liberal student body is being taught by a very liberal professoriate—and socialized by an incredibly liberal group of administrators,” Abrams concluded.

[tbw2]

One of the Most Liberal Groups in America
College administrators are off the scale in relation to the rest of the nation in terms of their ideological leanings, contends Samuel J. Abrams.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/11/08/college-administrators-are-more-liberal-other-groups-including-faculty-members

[tbw2]

And because liberal academics live in such a reinforcing bubble, they openly discriminate against conservatives based on hateful stereotypes.

Survey shocker: Liberal profs admit they’d discriminate against conservatives in hiring, advancement
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/1/liberal-majority-on-campus-yes-were-biased/

[ManHunter]

“Understand Free Expression on Campus”? That’s easy, there isn’t any - unless you’re a lefty, of course.

[Jess Kitting]

“Liberals Can’t Ignore the Right’s Hatred for Academia.”

And "Academia" cannot ignore its own Hatred for common sense and decency.

[equaviator]

Go ahead, make my day.