In the December 4 issue of The Washington Post, a column by Ellen Goodman entitled “Those Poor College Conservatives” claims conservative protests about the makeup of university faculty lacks substance. Goodman expresses her bafflement by exclaiming, “The only ones who take the universities as seriously as universities take themselves are activists on the right.”
She ought to come down to UNC, where the idea of having a program in Western Civilization has the campus leftists screaming. They’re taking it very seriously.
Goodman’s column does raise a good point, though. Why are people so concerned about what transpires on college campuses? The answer is that discourse at our universities is of the utmost importance. Americans should be concerned about how the nation’s future leaders are being indoctrinated … I mean educated.
In the March 2002 issue of Carolina Review, Editor Deb McCown illustrated the nature of the liberal stranglehold at UNC.
“In the Philosophy department, 74 percent of professors are registered Democrats,” McCown wrote. “…In English, 88 percent. History is 93 percent Democrat, and Women’s Studies, 100 percent.” Party registration doesn’t necessarily mean that the teaching is slanted, but Carolina students know from experience that it frequently is.
Goodman acknowledges the political disparity, but she tries to brush it off as a non- problem. She writes, “As for lopsided? Among full professors, 87 percent are white and 77 percent are male.” Suppose those figures are correct – how do they have any relevance to political bias?
The most important conservative activists on campuses, the students, do not point to these statistics for the reasons Goodman claims; “to back up complaints about discrimination in hiring and teaching, and the need for what is called ideological diversity.” Unlike liberals, who infer problems merely from statistical disparities, conservatives are concerned about actual abuses by professors.
If conservative students were not being treated unfairly by professors and administrators, the aforementioned statistics would be meaningless. However, knowing that most professors are leftists, coupled with the frequent mistreatment of conservatives, highlights a striking correlation. A quick perusal of the stories covered in Carolina Review during the last year illustrates the degree to which liberal bias has become entrenched on college campuses.
In February, an English lecturer sent an email to her class listserv calling a student “a white, heterosexual, [C]hristian male … [who] feel[s] entitled to make violent, heterosexist comments and not feel marked or threatened or vulnerable” because he claimed, in a discussion class, that he felt that homosexual behavior was wrong. The comments weren’t “violent,” and why should a professor want to make a student feel “threatened” simply for expressing an opinion?
In March, Carolina Students for Life was prevented from participating in “Women’s Week.” They wanted to bring a pro-life speaker and had followed the application process, but the Women’s Center decided to reject their proposal and to examine their mission statement before allowing them to help with the event.
Before the fall 2004 semester began, the University derecognized Alpha Iota Omega, a Christian fraternity, for refusing to sign a nondiscrimination policy that would have forced the group to admit non-Christians. This entailed freezing its university account (including money the group had raised itself), shutting off its web access, and denying the group the ability to reserve space on campus.
There are numerous other examples of liberal bias as well, but these three instances illustrate a troubling development. In less than one academic year at a single university, there were three instances of blatant liberal bias infringing upon the rights of students.
Goodman claims the concerns of conservatives over the hiring policies of universities are unfounded, asserting, “that activists on the right are claiming to be victims of discrimination rather than personal choice.”
Once again, Goodman fails to address the real issue. Conservatives in general may prefer to work in the free market over academia, but that does not excuse liberal professors when they use classrooms for preaching rather than teaching.
One reason why they may think they can take advantage of their positions may be the lack of intellectual diversity on campuses. Professors like Elyse Crystall may be so well insulated from conservative thought that they feel safe in voicing irrational criticisms over the class listserv.
Conservatives concerned about the status of higher education are not the hysterical reactionaries Goodman would have people believe. In fact they are among the few who are willing to examine higher education critically. If administrators care about giving students a sound education, they will crack down on classroom bias and examine all the possible reasons behind campus injustice, including university hiring policies.
Brian Sopp is a sophomore political science and journalism major at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is also Associate Editor of Carolina Review and an intern for the John William Pope Center.
