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current crisis has exposed the academy's true colors. Whereas most
Americans support the war effort, university faculties are populated
by professors who only want to give peace a chance. What is to be
done?
It's not surprising
that professors are mostly left wing. Professors' leftist beliefs
primarily stem from their economic outlook. Most people in the not-for-profit
sector are usually at least liberal (e.g. social workers, government
employees, state-subsidized artists.) Not-for-profit workers voluntarily
forgo the capitalist dream of achieving wealth through the marketplace
and instead rely upon the government and private contributions for
support. The conservative economic agenda of strengthening the business
sector by reducing the burden of government is likely to have diminished
appeal to those who work for organizations which aren't taxed or
significantly regulated.
The large number
of non-U.S. citizens in American colleges necessarily makes these
schools less patriotic. You wouldn't expect an American-based professor
who is of Chinese citizenship to be as pro-U.S. as the average American
is. As long as U.S. high schools continue to provide deficient training
in math and science however, American colleges will have to continue
to heavily recruit students and faculty from abroad if the schools
want to remain world class.
A less benign
reason why colleges are so politically correct is because leftists
in many academic departments will not hire outside their intellectual
gene pool. If a corporation uses political criteria in hiring its
profits will suffer and its owners will complain. Since colleges
are not actually owned by anyone, few complain when they sacrifice
their teaching mission for politics.
Republican
governors should complain, however, when public universities use
politically discriminatory hiring criteria. States devote vast resources
to public universities and governors are justified in insuring that
campuses don't discriminate on the basis of ideology. Democratic
governors are unlikely to take on left-wing professors. Republican
governors, however, should insure that people who share their beliefs
are allowed to teach at their public universities.
Campus liberals
would of course decry any attempt to restrict their hiring freedom.
Liberals, however, adamantly believe that statistical under representation
implies discrimination. Since universities openly discriminate in
favor of underrepresented racial minorities, they would have little
justification in complaining about a governor who forces them to
at least explain why, say, less than five percent of their humanities
professors are republicans.
The best way
for governors to reduce the influence of leftists in public universities
would be to insure that professors are hired and promoted primarily
on the basis of their teaching skills. Currently, most public universities
care far more about research than teaching. For most professors
in the humanities and social sciences (excluding economics) conducting
research means getting published in leftist journals. Practically
the only way for a women's-studies professor to get a lifetime college
appointment is for her to contribute to the literature on why America
is racist, sexist, and homophobic. If instead professors' career
advancements were determined by their teaching skills, then professors
would have to satisfy the needs of their students, not the ideological
demands of radical journal editors.
The problem
of ideological discrimination at private colleges must be approached
somewhat differently from that at public universities because it
would be inappropriate for governors to attempt to alter the political
composition of private schools. Alumni, however, could use their
contributions to exercise vast influence over private colleges.
Most private-college faculties would rather become ideologically
diverse than suffer a pay cut that would result if alumni contributions
significantly dropped.
Imagine if
you found out that the National Review Online received significant
funding from the Democratic party. Wouldn't you lose even more respect
for Democrats knowing that they are helping support a forum that
is manifestly hostile to their beliefs? The contempt that left-wing
colleges feel towards conservatives is undoubtedly intensified by
the knowledge that much of their funding comes from Republican governors
and alumni. If we're stupid enough to support them, perhaps we even
deserve their derision?
Students also
bear much of the blame for political correctness on campus. This
is not because students themselves are overwhelmingly left wing,
but rather because they are often apathetic and infrequently challenge
their leftist professors. Questioning a professor's politics is
unlikely to endanger a student's grade. Even most left-wing professors
prefer students who talk and challenge to those who quietly submit.
For most professors, arguing with students in class is far more
interesting than presenting the material they have already presented
year after year.
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