The Brookings Institution published a book a few months back entitled Closed Minds: Politics and Ideology in American Universities, by Bruce Smith, Jeremy D. Mayer, and A. Lee Fritschler. When it appeared, the news coverage focused upon the finding that while professors tend to the liberal side, their influence on undergraduates is negligible, and so the conservative claim that universities are indoctrinating students is an empty one.

The book itself, though, is more balanced, and some of its statements are worth quoting in full.

About ACTA’s 2005 anniversary meeting in D.C.:

Delegates from all parts of the country, including distinguished academics, university administrators, journalists, business leaders, a sprinkling of political figures from past Republican administrations, and donors, gathered in a generally upbeat and festive atmosphere to celebrate ACTA’s achievements, to hear lively panel presentations, and to exchange views. The participants were not the marginalized figures practicing a politics of resentment as conservatives have sometimes been depicted. The mood was cautiously optimistic. Speakers in the formal presentations and participants in conversations during the breaks were upbeat and distinctly happy cultural warriors.

About David Horowitz:

The concentration of critical fire on Horowitz could be seen as a tactical mistake and, more broadly, as the failure of a close-minded establishment to address some of Horowitz’s legitimate complaints. To build Horowitz up into a David battling the higher education Goliath was not a winning strategy. Horowitz’s demands were, at some level, reasonable and indeed quite in line with deeply rooted academic values.