Many Americans believe that colleges and universities are doing a disservice to students. In fact, 61 percent of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, have a negative view of higher education. It’s even higher for Republicans, as 73 percent say colleges and universities are going in the wrong direction.
Shockingly, academic studies show that liberalism has infiltrated academia and is corrupting higher education. Multiple recent studies from well-respected institutions have identified overwhelming negative repercussions that come as a result of the liberal creep in academia.
One such study by University of Oxford researchers found that conservatives have a “right to be skeptical of scientists,” suggesting that skepticism of scientific establishments is valid due to a long and proven history of “scholar activism” in fields like sociology and political science. After all, there is no shortage of examples when it comes to professors teaching their opinion in the classroom and taking part in political activism on campus.
The Econ Journal Watch published a study, conducted by professors from Brooklyn College and George Mason University, which found liberal professors and researchers outnumber conservatives nearly 12 to 1. Depending on the department, this disparity could be as great as 33 to 1, as the study found in departments of history.
Similarly, a study by the National Association of Scholars found that nearly 40 percent of the top ranked liberal arts colleges have zero professors who are registered Republicans.
Yet another study surveyed 479 full-time sociology professors and found that only 2 percent, or 1 in 50, identified as conservative. Even when including libertarians, only 4 percent of surveyed sociologists reported holding right-of-center views, whereas 83 percent described their political beliefs as either “liberal” or “radical.”
This left-wing prominence in faculties doesn’t just impact scientific research. It also impacts what goes on inside the classroom.
A study called “Students’ Religiosity and Perceptions of Political Bias: Some Empirical Lessons for Sociology Professors,” led by a political science professor from Queens University of Charlotte, found that conservative college students are self-censoring during class discussions. Furthermore, students who don’t share their professors’ views are likely to parrot their professors’ views on homework assignments.
This matches up with a study conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which found that a majority of college students self-censor. Shockingly, half of students (54 percent) have stopped themselves from “sharing an idea or opinion in class at some point since beginning college,” almost one-third of students (30 percent) have “self-censored in class because they thought their words might be considered offensive to their peers,” and almost one-third of students (29 percent) have “self-censored on campus outside of class because they thought their ideas might be politically incorrect.”
Obviously this alienates right-of-center students on campus and hinders a conservative student’s ability to engage in meaningful dialogue during class. It also hurts liberal students by shutting down rich, diverse conversation for all to participate in. This political one-sidedness is a clear suppression of speech which only serves to hurt an academic environment which should be rich in diversity and discussion.
Many universities have hired pricey “chief diversity officers” to ensure that some form of diversity – whether that includes political ideology is up for debate – is monitored, implemented, and encouraged on campus. However, more research shows these measures of forced diversity and quota-driven hiring have fallen short.
A working paper published by National Bureau of Economic Research has found that “the proportion of diverse tenured faculty hired is 5.61 percent lower with an active CDO [Chief Diversity Officer] in place.” By combining hiring data on chief diversity officers and hiring data on federal faculty broken down by race and ethnicity, the paper entitled “The Impact of Chief Diversity Officers on Diverse Faculty Hiring” found that hiring methods from 2001 to 2016 were no more diverse, and in fact less diverse, in cases where a chief diversity officer was on a university’s payroll.
This lack of diversity is not solely a problem with faculty. It’s also present in university culture.
A study analyzing more than a thousand tweets put out by the top 25 universities in the fall of 2016 showed that elite universities tend to propagate liberal talking points. While the overwhelming majority of tweets studied were politically neutral, tweets that conveyed political sentiments were disproportionately liberal-leaning. The research documented 87 pro-liberal tweets in comparison to just 30 pro-conservative tweets.
No wonder Americans, especially conservative Americans, are concerned about the direction of higher education!
This skepticism held by the public stems from genuine concern of bias, and an understanding that pure liberalism in the university does not set the tone for a vibrant discussion of ideas or a rich learning experience. Even academic studies show as much.
A small minority of professors are sounding the alarm that liberal bias is hurting quality education and academic research. One penned an op-ed titled, “I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me.” But college presidents overwhelmingly do not feel that “Republicans’ doubts about higher education are justified,” according to polling.
This is just a small sampling of studies showing the negative repercussions of monolithic left-wing thought on campus; there are many more. When will academics look at the research, wake up, and make changes?
