getcereal wrote:
schroeder wrote:
Universities who are always pushing for 'diversity' seem to stop at diverse points of view especially when it means hiring more conservative professors.
I don't agree. In the university departments where it matters most (political science, history, economics) is where there is the most political diversity and the most push for political diversity. In the sciences, there are very few conservatives but political views in the sciences are not taken into consideration (or even known) when hiring. Yes, a potential candidate in biology who doesn't believe in evolution would likely not be hired if he had somehow published papers containing these views -- that person would never even make the first cut unless it was at a very conservative, religious school.
In the liberal art colleges the numbers are staggering...
Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor of business at Brooklyn College, published a study of the political affiliations of faculty members at 51 of the 66 liberal-arts colleges ranked highest by U.S. News in 2017. The findings are eye-popping (even if they do not come as a great surprise to many people in academia).
Democrats dominate most fields. In religion, Langbert’s survey found that the ratio of Democrats to Republicans is 70-to-1. In music, it is 33-to-1. In biology, it is 21-to-1. In philosophy, history and psychology, it is 17-to-1. In political science, it is 8-to-1.
The gap is narrower in science and engineering. In physics, economics and mathematics, the ratio is about 6-to-1. In chemistry, it is 5-to-1, and in engineering, it is just 1.6-to-1. Still, Lambert found no field in which Republicans are more numerous than Democrats.
True, these figures do not include the many professors who do not have a political affiliation, either because they are not registered at all or because they have not declared themselves as Democrats or Republicans. And, true, the ratios vary dramatically across colleges.
None of the 51 colleges had more Republicans than Democrats. According to the survey, more than a third of them had no Republicans at all.
Interesting. I wonder how this compares to universities. The ratios in the sciences are what I said - very few conservatives. I'm very familiar with university hiring in the sciences and hiring committees look at area of research, publications, and teaching, not politics so I'd guess it has to do with the ratio in the pool of applicants. You're right though, Political Science, history and economics should not be so lopsided. The funny one is religion - 70-1? What about all the catholic liberal arts schools? Georgetown, ND, BC, Gonzaga, Holy Cross, Villanova - all good schools and I assume have a lot of Jesuits in the religion depts. But I guess the Jesuits are the most liberal priests. Anyway, I wonder if anyone has looked at the same ratios for the pool of applicants.