I ran across this article this week and after considering the writer's thesis, I think I may be incorrect that it is mostly the conservative student who is most disadvantaged by liberal bias on American faculties. According to this point of view, conservatives are not being brainwashed or adversely affected in any permanent way (though I remain convinced that a complete education includes exposure to all points of view.)
This writer says it is the liberal student who most suffers from the current lack of ideological diversity. I had not thought of it from that perspective, but he may have a valid point.
At the very least, it is interesting.
(Emphasis mine)
Issue date: 11.17.2004
Liberal bias hurts liberals
by Will Phung
Like so many other universities in the Northeast and on the West Coast, NYU maintains a vastly liberal student population. However, while many take that fact for granted, what most do not know is that the liberal domination in university life in blue states extends past the student body.
Even though the left has traditionally held that university faculties are a diverse lot, the truth is that conservative thought is all but absent from the ranks of those college professors. A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that more than nine out of 10 college professors identify as liberal.
The natural response to this revelation is that conservative students are stymied in higher education because there are almost no like-minded professors with whom they can converse and explore issues. But the other, less discussed side of the coin is that liberal students are not being challenged in their beliefs and are losing out on part of their education as a result.
Certainly, liberal dominance of the university scene has some repercussions for right-minded students. In fact, according to a survey of adult Americans by The Chronicle, half, including 30 percent of those who considered themselves liberal, agreed that there is a liberal bias leaking into the teaching at universities. The left may try claim that a professor's political tendencies do not affect the work being taught, but the country is beginning to see this theory as the lie that it is.
Yet this is really not as damaging as it sounds.
With this new report, conservatives around the country are sure to rail against the indoctrination of the youth into the bizarre, hippie leftist culture. If the recent presidential election exit polls are any indicator, though, this indoctrination has not been occurring.
In fact, those who graduated from the liberal college realm and went into the real world instead of to grad school voted more for President Bush than for loser Kerry by a six-point margin. Despite being taught predominantly by liberal-minded professors, conservative students do not seem to be having their opinions forcibly changed.
While it may be true that some conservative students feel intimidated by such a vast left wing leaning on campus, those who are not afraid to voice their unpopular, right opinions could actually be benefiting from this liberal bias. By debating their values with both other students and professors who do not agree, conservative students are being intellectually challenged and will come out smarter for it.
Chronicle writer Mark Bauerlein, who reported on the dominance of liberals on universities campuses, calls this the "ordinary evolution of opinion." Integral to this evolution is debating ideas with those who hold opposing ideas. Far from being detrimental to conservative students, the liberal dominance at universities helps them by providing an ample ground for invigorating debate.
Unfortunately for liberal students, they are not afforded the same opportunity while at college. When almost every professor and much of the student body shares the same leftist views, liberal students do not have as many chances as their conservative counterparts to spar intellectually with other-minded people; they cannot as readily participate in the evolution of opinion.
What this breeds is a generation of liberal university students who have never had their views challenged by professors. Many leftists mock conservatives from red states as being ignorant, yet it is those conservatives who are being intellectually challenged about their values while the liberals can remain complacent.
Changing the liberal landscape will be a daunting endeavor, if it is undertaken at all. The solution is to hire more conservative professors, of course, but this is not as easy as it sounds. Many conservative intelligentsia have grown disenfranchised with the university system and have given up trying to be professors at all. It will not be easy to court them back, and it is not evident that universities want to lure them back to begin with.
This is where students, especially liberal students, must step in. While it may be more comfortable to be in a liberal haven, leftist students must make it known that they need conservative professors to challenge their views and engage them in the type of discourse from which conservative students are now benefiting.
http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/columnists/8347.html
