5/26/00 4:45 p.m.
Intellectual Harassment in Connecticut
Campus research centers under investigation for conservative research.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, NR associate editor------------lopezk@nationalreview.com

ill the University of Connecticut ban conservative research from campus? The six professors at the University of Connecticut who make up a recently formed task force might find themselves working overtime this summer, on an assignment from the school's PC-police.

In late April, the University's non-partisan Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) issued the results of a survey it conducted of public-university professors in Connecticut. The poll, commissioned by the National Association of Scholars, found that professors in the state's public higher-education system overwhelmingly reject preferences — in both hiring and admissions. At Connecticut State University, faculty members rejected preferences by 61 percent to 18 percent. At the University of Connecticut, the margin was 52 percent to 29 percent, and at Connecticut Community College it was 75 to 15.

But now the CSRA and other campus research centers are under investigation by the six-member task force. And despite the fact that the investigation, first set up to investigate the CSRA, is now looking at other campus research centers, Richard Veilleux, a spokesman for the university, assures us that "the one survey was the sole catalyst" for the investigation. "It was the catalyst for a number of questions on campus that were raised by faculty about the propriety of the questions." Veilleux added that once the facts are laid bare about "what the group was who paid for the survey, what they stood for, what their goals are, [then] it becomes obvious that sure, they wanted to make their point through this survey."

This flies in the face of a written statement from the university's president, Phillip E. Austin, issued shortly after the controversial survey results were released. While reaffirming his and the university's inaugural commitment "to inclusion, to fairness, to leveling the playing field, and to reaching out to the underrepresented," he claimed confidence in the Center for Survey Research and Analysis.

Whether or not Austin is working behind the scenes as a force for good remains to be seen, says National Association of Scholars president Stephen Balch. What can be said, according to Balch, is that "this is a significant development in the history of political correctness — this is the first time an academic research center has been menaced." The results of the NAS-commissioned preferences survey showed that "professors are like most Americans" when it comes to preferences. "And those who like preferences don't want that to be known."

Balch sent a letter to Austin on May 5 and has not heard anything back. The school's only comment on the unanswered letter and the president's silence since the investigation began is the following: "This has all happened all in the last month or so, right in the middle of commencement, so I wouldn't be surprised if it came to the president at an unfortunate time."

But near-end-of-the-semester activities didn't stop the University of Connecticut from setting up the task force, and getting to work on intimidating those interested in pursuing honest research. Questioned about this, the school responds: "If you consider when the actual survey questions were asked, it was several months." In other words, we should be grateful the survey wasn't shut down before it was complete? (This was a possibility. A faculty member who was a stringer for a local paper leaked the story of the survey. Yet no local or national media have cared to cover the school's apparent crackdown.)

"No one has substantiated any complaints about the way we went about doing the research," says CSRA director Ken Dautrich. "If there were ethical or other problems with the way we went about conducting the survey, I'm sure that President Austin would have stepped in and stopped us immediately." It was clear before the survey was through, Dautrich says, that many at the university "didn't want these questions asked. And they didn't want to see the results."

Far from being a conservative research outlet, the center has done work in the past for liberal groups, including the Media Studies Center and First Amendment Center. Its invitation to critics of the preferences survey: Come at us with your own poll. There have been no takers as of yet.

Dautrich says the task force will chill the freedom of scholarship, and that its aim is clearly censorship. He concludes: "Censorship of any sort when it comes to research that's done at universities, is deplorable. There is nothing to be gained from it."