At most of the nation’s colleges and universities, we find a heavy leftist domination: faculty, administration, curriculum, outside speakers, etc. How did it get that way?
Richard Vedder offers his thoughts in this Minding the Campus essay.
One major reason is that the faculty are to a large degree dependent on government. “They derive their income in large part directly or indirectly from governmental largess even at so-called private schools. Progressives favor big governments; big governments shower more dollars onto college campuses, providing larger salaries and lower teaching loads for academics,” Vedder writes.
In other words, profs know where their bread gets buttered. Any shrinkage of the state looks scary because it could lead to fewer dollars for those who make their living in the higher ed system.
Second, Vedder argues, most schools lack the sort of adult supervision that would rein in the politicization of the academy. No one acts the way owners of assets do when something threatens their value. “Radical students think they own the university. Faculty think they own or co-own it. Senior administrators think they are the owners, as sometimes do wealthy alumni.” Those groups act as if they own the university, but they don’t. Ownership rests with the trustees, but, alas, for the most part they have ducked confrontation with the groups seeking to politicize the campus.
I think that Vedder is suggesting that we have a “commons” problem. With no effective ownership over the university, groups are “overgrazing” in ways that are ruining its value. This will continue, he writes, until the legal owners “assert themselves and tell the presidents to show leadership and not let the lunatics run the asylum.”