liberal bias in academia

For those of you who are unaware of what is happening on college campuses across America, let me tell you.  They have been completely overtaken by radical, leftist ideologues.  Students of the 1960s who swore to infiltrate our institutions and transform them from the inside out have done just that.

When I was a seventeen-year-old incoming freshman, I couldn’t care less about politics.  I decided to major in Sociology – the study of society, history and demographics (or so I thought).  I quickly came to find out that Sociology was the study of racism, sexism, and oppression.  In fact, if all you did was repeat those three words over and over again in every single course you took, you would be rewarded with straight A’s.

By the time I was a senior, I was a staunch conservative Republican (with many Libertarian tendencies).  Politics became my passion.  But my greatest cause became the liberal bias in academia.  So much so that I conducted a year-long scientific study on the subject.  The Sociology department was none too happy with this.  My faculty advisor rejected much of my literary research, claiming it was not “academic.”  She also tried to get me to change the topic of my thesis.  In addition, I was the only member of the program that was denied funding.  I fought tooth and nail every step of the way.  But at the end of the year, I had a conclusive study demonstrating the liberal bias in academia across the country.  Here are some of the findings:

Of the 94 participants, only four identified themselves as Republican, the same number of people who identified themselves as Libertarian and Green, and 61 identified themselves as Democrat.

Only one subject identified him or herself as conservative, compared to 52 participants who identified themselves as liberal.

The more liberal the subject, the less likely he or she was to perceive hostility against conservative views.

Although respondents disagreed whether conservative ideas are met with hostility, nearly everyone acknowledged that liberal ideas are not met with hostility in academia.

When subjects were asked if they think that students feel unable to openly express conservative views on college campuses, the liberal respondents were more likely to answer no while the conservative respondents were more likely to answer yes.

Although conservative and liberal subjects differed in terms of their perceptions of academic freedom for conservative views, they agreed that liberals receive high levels of freedom of speech on college campuses.

When asked if they think students and faculty must censor themselves when speaking about conservative political views, 75% of conservatives answered yes, compared to only 21% of liberals.

The majority of all respondents, however, agreed that students and faculty do not have to censor themselves when speaking about liberal political views.

Similarly, nearly all subjects agreed that students and faculty with liberal views have freedom to express those views.  When asked the same question about conservatives, the more liberal the subject, the less he or she perceived infringements of freedom of speech for conservative viewpoints.

When asked if they think that liberal student newspapers have been stolen from newsstands and offices on college campuses, 86% of conservative respondents answered yes, 29% of moderates answered yes, 46% of those who identified themselves as somewhat liberal answered yes, and 61% of liberal subjects answered yes.  Interestingly, a larger percentage of conservatives than of liberals felt that infringements of academic freedom have hindered left-leaning student papers.

When asked if they think that conservative student newspapers have been stolen from newsstands and offices on college campuses, 100% of conservatives answered yes, while 58% of liberals answered yes.

When asked if they think that conservative guest speakers to universities, in recent years, have been met with hostility and sometimes prevented from speaking, 100% of conservatives answered yes, while only 41% of liberals answered yes.  The more liberal the participant, the less likely he or she perceived a hostile climate for conservative guest speakers.

Most subjects agreed, however, that liberal guest speakers to universities have not been met with hostility.

When asked where infringements of academic freedom come from, 41% of liberals answered “from the Right.”  Conversely, 57% of conservatives, 89% of moderates, and merely 5% of liberals answered “from the Left.”

When asked if they think that universities promote group identity along racial lines, 83% of conservatives, compared to 46% of liberals, answered yes.

Similarly, when asked if they think universities promote group identity along gender lines, 71% of conservatives, compared to 35% of liberals, answered yes.

When asked if they think that universities promote group identity in respect to sexual-orientation, 71% of conservatives answered yes, while 72% of liberals answered no.

When asked, in question 51, if they think that group identity on college campuses prevents students from thinking autonomously, moderates (56%) and conservatives (29%) were more likely to answer yes than were liberal (22%) or somewhat liberal (17%) subjects.

Subjects’ age was also examined in relation to all other responses from the questionnaire.  The older the subject, the more likely he or she perceived freedom of speech for liberal ideas during the 1950s.  Interestingly, respondents who were not even alive during the McCarthy and Cold War era of the 1950s perceived a lack of freedom for liberal ideas during that time.

In general, the liberal respondents do not perceive infringements of academic freedom even though they have been documented at universities all over the country.  The liberal professors in the study seem unaware of the situation.  They may either not know about these infringements or may not want to admit their existence.

Now that liberals hold the vast majority of power positions in academia, they are using the classroom to advocate a political agenda and push their own views onto impressionable students.  Political correctness, multiculturalism, progressive causes, and often radical views are accepted and condoned.  The advocacy of such causes results in intimidation, hostility, and silencing of unpopular views.

Although this country holds education in quite high esteem, the university has lost much of its original focus.  Today, students are deprived of objectivity and critical thinking.  Often times, counter arguments are not made, not heard, or not well received.  This means that students are entering the world outside of the university without the skills and intellect they should have acquired while attending college.

The situation appears quite bleak on today’s college campuses.  The vast majority of instructors are like-minded individuals hoping to change society rather than develop intellectual capacity.  In order to alleviate the problem, the public and the academics in power will have to become aware of the situation.