Free speech and academia

How about just restoring trust? What is needed is respect for the Other. Liberals and conservatives both need to learn more about why their opposite feels the way they do, what they are afraid of, and why it matters so much to them. What is really needed is a group of people who care more about ethics and integrity than their own ideology. Such a group could work together to restore trust by setting some limits and establishing standards of decent conduct. We need to recognize how destructive this fight is and agree to abide by fair rules.

lyn @ 6:34 PM PDT, Apr 19, 2008

There are schools full of conservative teachers, they're called seminaries. A university education requires critical thinking and open minded thought (something foreign to most conservatives) so it shouldn't be suprising that Universities have more progressive, open minded and yes more liberal people in them...that's why it's called the "Liberal" arts and not the "conservative" arts...so please if you don't want to be open minded or challenged to think outside the "conservative" box then go to a theological based school like Oral Roberts University...please don't go to a liberal arts college then complain about everyone being so "Liberal"...

curtisthecurtis @ 3:57 PM PDT, Apr 17, 2008

Michael is absolutely right. Many professors might as well be teaching "Why Liberals Should Rule the World," which is the effect of what they indoctrinate students with. They're so self-righteous and condescending to students who disagree, as just "not getting it" and failing them. Fact that ALL journalism prof's at the Uni's listed (or virtually any) are liberal, and they're churning out the people who are supposed to give the average public its "facts," is especially scary. Look at USC's Journalism school, e.g.: Marc Cooper, Celeste Fremon, Alan Mittelstaedt/CityBeat - clever wordsmiths, infuriating biased left.

jane @ 3:08 PM PDT, Apr 17, 2008

Demands for balance are interesting. Liberals believe that minority opinions ought to receive equal attention and be presented as equally valid. If there is a group of Melanesians that consider homosexuality sacred, let's focus on that. But when it is proven that Margaret Mead was spoofed and entirely deceived about sex practices in Samoa, just forget about it. When two reasonable men have trouble supporting the extreme liberal environment on American campuses.....we just need to protest that in a pompous and self-aggrandizing tone.

randy @ 5:25 PM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

Also here is the poster boy for indoctrination...into the UNESCO way of thinking which is in direct conflict with our freedom as guaranteed by our constitution: Who is Teaching Our Teachers? View one NH college professor's only source of course material... http://oz.plymouth.edu/~lsandy

NH @ 4:06 PM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

Try being a teacher who opposes OBE in the 1980s and see what happens to you. It is what I pictured happens in communist Cuba, not free America. If they can't get you with the Delphi Technique or you ask too many questions you will be a marked man or woman. Brainwashing from elitists is a scary thing -- and they are using the educational system and the children as political pawns. Good parents must recognize this and stop all funding for public education until this stops! The enemy is within.

NH @ 4:05 PM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

I'm suprised that in all the comments no one really cared to distinguish between what Mr. Shermer and Mr. Lukianoff are saying. Mr. Shermer more or less follows a Horrowitzean (does he deserve his own adjective?) logic: that is assert that political party affiliation is evidence of bias and attack. Mr. Lukianoff, in contrast, makes a distinction between political affiliation, bias, and indoctrination. Actually, he even expresses frustration with conservative students who feel that simply being exposed to the liberal opinions of some of their professors is indoctrination.

Ivy Alum @ 12:54 PM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

I have taught at 6 major universities over a 38 year career. All my colleagues have been over whelmingly liberal, about 95% of the total. Many of them expouse political ideas in classes and their assignments. They aren't even aware of it.

ted @ 12:01 PM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

I'd like to second the objection to the idea that the teaching professions are "cushy." Most of the scholars I know spend upwards of ten hours a day working on courses, grading, articles, books, committeework, &c. And it's hard, exhausting work. And it's hardly "secure" when tenure-track jobs are drying up at many institutions, even as tenure itself is getting harder and harder to earn. I'd also like to point out (along with some of the other people here) that voter registration doesn't equal bias (how I vote about healthcare doesn't have much to do with how I teach Chaucer).

Tom @ 10:55 AM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

You're not likely to find social conservatives in an anthropology or sociology department because both fields require a high degree of tolerance for different kinds of people and cultural views. If you think homosexuality is a sin, how can you objectively discuss a culture where it is accepted or even considered sacred (as in Melanesia)? Notwithstanding egregious examples of indoctrination, all this complaining about pervasive liberal bias in academia is balderdash. If conservatives want to be taught by people who think like them, then they can major in economics or business.

Alaric @ 9:58 AM PDT, Apr 15, 2008

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