At American universities, some diversity is more equal than others.
Posted by sanityinjection on July 15, 2009
I commend to you this column printed in the Christian Science Monitor by University of Oregon student Dan Lawton. Lawton surveyed faculty members at his school to see if the stereotype of professors being virtually uniformly left-wing was true. Out of 111 faculty members across five departments covering polticial and public policy issues, he found two Republicans.
However, when Lawton published his findings in the school newspaper and opined that some ideological diversity on the faculty would be a healthy improvement for the school, he was attacked by faculty members for his audacity.
Of course, the ideological domination of college campuses by the Left and their efforts to curtail free speech and freedom of expression in conformity with their beliefs is not a new issue. Former liberal-turned-conservative David Horowitz has made it the focus of his writing and speeches. But this example illustrates the searing venom directed against anyone who so much as raises the question. If the charge is an empty one, why fear it?
I-love-things-that-sparkle said
This commentary really bothered me. The last two sentences influenced me to believe that the college student was literally attacked by the faculty because of such extreme words depicting what happened as “searing venom.”
But let’s examine the numbers. The proportion of republicans on this campus is 2 out of 111, correct? Admittingly, a VERY small number. The proportion of faculty that had conflicting words with the college student? That would be again, 2 out of 111. Why is that same proportion suggested to be tiny in the first half of this commentary but then suggested to be overwhelming in the last half? That’s what bugged me. Only two out of 111 professors shot searing venom at the college student but the overwhelming statement is made that ‘this is what happens when liberals don’t get their way.’
I ask you simply to look at the numbers and be fair. On any hot debate, a proportion that tiny of objection would not even be considered worthy of mentioning. As a teacher, I can relate because every time I see another teacher on the news found having sex with his/her student, there is an overwhelming public perception that all teachers want to have sex with their students, when in fact the proportion of teachers doing so is less than a fraction of a percent. In this case, this young man was met with some hostile words, but it does not appear to be an onslaught of resistence as is presented in your article. Oregon is a blue state, so logically there will be more democrats in the faculty. And while a more diverse faculty is good on any campus, it is a mistake to say that this student’s right to free speech was limited. Yes, he was confronted by two teachers, but he still published his articles, he still got the grade he should have in class, and in reality, his rights were not limited in any way. He did have to defend himself, something we all have to do when we stir up controversy. The fear of his rights being limited is what drove his second article, not his actual rights being taken away. Fear can make us say all kinds of inaccuracies.
Also, I think there is another error in saying that democrat = liberal. This student’s sampling was in error because he did not count the number of liberals on the faculty, he counted the number of democrats. There may be numerous conservative democrats in the sampling. I prefer for researchers to sample what they are testing for and not sampling for their assumptions.
This student’s final conclusion was a statement about liberals and nothing about his article strikes me as being accurate or fair, or his response by faculty to be overwhelmingly venomous.
I-love-things-that-sparkle said
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make my comment longer than your article!
I-love-things-that-sparkle said
Oh, sorry, one more thing, the sentence “ideological domination of college campuses by the Left” doesn’t take into account those “colleges in the south” (as stated in the student’s article) and those in predominantly red states.
sanityinjection said
Your points are well taken. However, when you talk about colleges in the South – the vast majority of America’s four-year colleges and universities are in the North, and particularly in the Northeast and the West Coast, all blue-state areas. I accept that there is regional variation and agree it’s probably much less of a problem in the South.