Our universities our known for being overwhelmingly liberal in their orientation. In some respects they are one of the least diverse places. A sad commentary given their trade in ideas. That's
an article which points this out.
Unless you believe that
ever-expanding government programs and centrally planned economies are
the solution to all of life's contingencies and social problems you will
not likely get a faculty position in the humanities, social sciences,
or education at an American college or university. A prevailing myth in
America is that our colleges and universities are bastions of diversity.
This is laughable. To believe the diversity myth one must ignore the
fact that American higher education seems to care less about students
being introduced to diverse ideas and perspectives. When American
colleges talk "diversity" they only seem to mean it along the axis of
race, gender, and class. The notion that a robust learning community
requires students be exposed to multiple perspectives has no value in
the modern academy. What matters today on most campuses is intellectual
homogeneity—also known as tribal "group think."
Two surveys, studies point this out.
In the August issue the journal Inside Higher Ed, a large survey of psychologists reported the following:
“Just over 37 percent of those surveyed said that, given
equally qualified candidates for a job, they would support the hiring
of a liberal candidate over a conservative candidate. Smaller
percentages agreed that a ‘conservative perspective’ would negatively
influence their odds of supporting a paper for inclusion in a journal or
a proposal for a grant.”
In another major study,
research by Yoel Inbar and Joris Lammers demonstrates that social
psychologists, for example, openly admit they would bypass conservatives
in the hiring process. When the authors surveyed a large number of
social and personality psychologists they discovered several
not-so-surprising facts:
“First, although only 6 percent described themselves as
conservative ‘overall,’ there was more diversity of political opinion on
economic issues and foreign policy. Second, respondents significantly
underestimated the proportion of conservatives among their colleagues.
Third, conservatives fear negative consequences of revealing their
political beliefs to their colleagues. Finally, conservatives are right
to do so: In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social
and personality psychologists said that they would discriminate against
openly conservative colleagues. The more liberal respondents were, the
more they said they would discriminate.”
What's the moral of the story? It seems that there is proven
discrimination against conservatives in America's colleges and
universities and this will not likely change anytime soon without
radical intervention. Will colleges and universities be as proactive in
securing intellectual diversity as they have been for racial and gender
diversity? Do we need affirmative action hiring programs for
non-liberals and progressives because conservatives are not given access
to faculty opportunities? If so, that's something that even President
Obama might truly call “forward.”
This is certainly one form of diversity liberals won't get behind.
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