Why there are more liberals in academia - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Apr 5, 2005

Why there are more liberals in academia

Date: Apr 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Angeline
"Excerpts: It's a fact, documented by two recent studies, that registered Republicans and self-proclaimed conservatives make up only a small minority of professors at elite universities."

This would seem to support statements made in the letters to the editor column.

Date: Apr 5, 2005

This quote from a student on the Conspiricy thread helps explain the "liberal" view the public has of academia.

"Over the years, for one reason or the other, I've formed an opinion that's highly different from the area around me. I come from a very small town where chruch attendence determines, on a large part, socital standing. It's also a place where most people form their political opinions based solely on what their parents and pastors say. "

Date: Apr 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Angeline
"
And it wouldn't just be a matter of demanding that historians play down the role of slavery in early America, or that economists give the macroeconomic theories of Friedrich Hayek as much respect as those of John Maynard Keynes. Soon, biology professors who don't give creationism equal time with evolution and geology professors who dismiss the view that the Earth is only 6,000 years old might face lawsuits.
If it got that far, universities would probably find ways to cope - by, say, requiring that all entering students sign waivers. But political pressure will nonetheless have a chilling effect on scholarship. And that, of course, is its purpose. "

I think this quote cleverly deflects the broader point that of the authors of these or similar studies. The numbers I saw had 'elite' universities going from about 35% Rep. and 45% Dem in the 1980s to

Date: Apr 5, 2005

technical difficulties...

Date: Apr 5, 2005

It's a fact, documented by two recent studies, that registered Republicans and self-proclaimed conservatives make up only a small minority of professors at elite universities. But what should we conclude from that?

Those who do, do!

Those who can not, teach!

Date: Apr 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Coast Resident
"Those who do, do! Those who can not, teach!"

This is such a tired old cliche; would you care to explain or defend it? Or perhaps you cannot "do" that?

Date: Apr 5, 2005

I think that the percentage of one or the other of the two major parties in academe varies over time depending on numerous factors, and that these macrosocial moves are best recorded in hindsight. Didn't liberals at one time complain that the politically conservative university disenfranchised them? If so, it would seem the pendulum has swung the other way. But it's a pendulum, no?

One of my favorite sayings is by Martin Luther. Somewhere he said that humankind is like a drunk that falls off one side of his donkey, climbs back on, and falls off the other side.

'Probably less than .02. Perhaps a political historian will weigh in.

Jameela

Date: Apr 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Coast Resident
"Those who do, do! Those who can not, teach!"

Let's complete that old cliché: "And those who cannot teach become administrators."

<OPENING UP OBLIGATORY CAN OF WORMS>
Looking at the sorry state of Mississippi's dunghill economy & considering historical political tendencies, I concluded long ago that "conservatism" (at least as practiced in Mississippi) is absolutely the worst possible point-of-view unless, of course, one is already at the top of the dunghill, in which case "conservatism" is necessary to maintain one's "scenic view."
<CLOSING OBLIGATORY CAN OF WORMS>

(Please note that "Mississippi conservatism" is indeed a special case & should not be confused with any form of rational conservatism at the national or international level. There are good arguments for being a conservative; "Mississippi conservatives" tend to advance very few of them.)

Date: Apr 5, 2005

<OBLIGATORY ILLUSTRATION>:

</OBLIGATORY ILLUSTRATION>:

Date: Apr 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Coast Resident
"It's a fact, documented by two recent studies, that registered Republicans and self-proclaimed conservatives make up only a small minority of professors at elite universities. But what should we conclude from that? Those who do, do! Those who can not, teach!"

And those who can't teach; teach teachers.

Date: Apr 5, 2005

I normally stay out of the liberal vs. conservative threads, but I read that same Krugman column this morning.

I don't blame Krugman for objecting to the laws being promoted by David Horowitz and his band of wowsers. State laws controlling what can be said in a college classroom are both wrong and unconstitutional. And Horowitz evidently has no objection to thought police on campuses, so long as those thought police report to him.

What I object to is Krugman's effort to lump anyone who bucks the prevailing ideological trends in certain academic disciplines with those who believe that no education is necessary because everything anyone would need to know is already in some divinely inspired text.

I know economists, for instance, who are perfectly capable of making their case that Hayek had a better economic theory than Keynes did. Krugman is living a remarkably sheltered intellectual life if he has never met any of them. And since Hayek was an evolutionary thinker, it is a bit of a challenge to square his theories with preachments about the literal truth of a 3000-year old Middle Eastern creation myth.

As for equating intellectual respect for Hayek to deliberately downplaying the role of slavery in early America... Or ignoring the fact that that some academic disciplines were leaning well to the left, politically, before religious conservatives became so prominent in the Republican Party... Or airily assuming that natural science professors all share the political worldview of Paul Krugman and his buddies, while ag and engineering professors don't even exist...

Gimme a break! Krugman is an extremely smart man who knows better than to write this kind of stuff. His column is the precise counterpart of a rant by Ann Coulter.

Robert Campbell

Date: Apr 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Patti
"And those who can't teach; teach teachers."

Unfortunately, that is now the case at USM. We've lost many of our best teachers of teachers in the past 3 years. As a student who basically came to USM so I could be taught by the best of them, along with the English Dept faculty , I changed majors because the best had quit, were quitting, or were suing.

Date: Apr 5, 2005

It is sad beyond description to see a brilliant scholar like P. Krugman allow his partisanship to overwhelm his scholarship. In an earlier generation, the same thing happened to Lester Thurow at MIT and he really wasn't in Krugman's league (few are in terms of intellectual horsepower). It's like watching a plane in a tailspin and you just want to yell "Pull out of it!"