To answer the question, they would do so when they fear that the results might reveal some inconvenient truths. That is to say, results that undermine what matters most to them: the advance of the “progressive” agenda.
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Joseph Knippenberg writes about such an instance taking place at the University of Wisconsin.
Knippenberg explains, “Now there’s Wisconsin, where a new survey covering all the campuses in the University of Wisconsin system has become a bone of contention. The “Student Perceptions of Campus Free Speech Survey” was originally scheduled to be administered in April and May of this year but has been postponed to the fall. Designed by a team of researchers led by Professor Timothy Shiell of the University of Wisconsin-Stout and administered by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, this survey, approved by all the relevant Institutional Research Boards, gives even more urgency to the questions it is meant to address.”
Shiell has run into a wall of opposition to his research because, say many of the reigning leftists in UW, the results might be “misused” by people they regard as political enemies. Those opposing it include the American Association of University Professors, which once robustly defended freedom for professors to conduct any research. But not this research!
To those who oppose allowing Shiell’s research to go forward, Knippenberg responds, “Perhaps they simply think that politicians, especially conservative politicians, will cynically exploit anything—fake news or real news — that helps them get their way. I don’t regard this as an entirely unreasonable concern, but I think that cherry-picking data and anecdotes is something that most people in the public square do. This practice isn’t restricted to only one side of the political spectrum. And if it’s a fact of life in our public square, then those of us who would like to inform and elevate public debate to the degree that it’s possible have to learn to live with it and make the best of our situation. That certainly doesn’t mean eschewing data, when it’s available. But it does mean entering into the conversation and trying to be as persuasive as possible when we have the floor.”
He’s right, and this instance shows once more that the nation’s academic culture has fallen on hard times when the search for knowledge is subordinated to political agendas.