80% of College Professors are Democratic

[H. Godwineson]

While exercising my thumb with the TV remote the other day, I ran across a news program discussing the tendency of U.S. colleges to hire mainly Democrats to faculty positions.  One of the guests was an author of a book on this issue, who had visited more than 200 campuses across the nation, asking the faculty members which political party they belonged to.

His conservative presence was balanced by that of the program's host and two other guests, both of the liberal persuasion.  Typically, it was one of those discussions where a speaker's statements were constantly being interrupted by the others.  (Sorry that I do not remember the name of the program or the host.  I am rapidly approaching seniorhood.)

Nevertheless, the discussion piqued my interest, and some questions popped to mind.  I offer them up here for discussion:

1.  In a society that is pretty evenly divided down the middle of the political spectrum, how can one political group so dominate the hiring of academics?

2.  Could this be deliberate?

One of the guests on the program, a red-headed woman who was a faculty member at a California University, responded to the first question by stating the following:  Republicans who have a college education are more interested in earning money than in applying for jobs in the academic community;  Democrats were more interested in becoming educators.  In other words, the superior virtue of the Democrats led them to serve the needs of our youth.

What do you think?  How could such a disproportionate number of Democrats be hired "accidentally?"


Regards, Shuckins

[AKSWulfe]

and 80% of college student's are butterin wetawded... so I guess they balance each other out?

-SW

[Thud]

Probably because democrats through some inexplicable coincidence generate much better impressions at job interviews...

Well, maybe not inexplicable.

[midnight Target]

Well it's obvious to me!

College professors, representing the most highly educated Americans, choose to be Democrats because they know better. duh!

[john9001]

it's very simple, the "good ol boy network" , liberals will hire liberals.

the dream of every liberal is to be a tenured collage prof.
easy "work", short hours,good pay,pleasant working conditions, can't be fired, good retirment.

[H. Godwineson]

Oh PUH-LEASE!

Come on guys, be SERIOUS!


Regards, Shuckins

[midnight Target]

Originally posted by john9001
it's very simple, the "good ol boy network" , liberals will hire liberals.

the dream of every liberal is to be a tenured collage prof.
easy "work", short hours,good pay,pleasant working conditions, can't be fired, good retirment.

Well those darned conservatives are snapping up all the hard work, long hours, bad pay, crappy working conditions, no retirement jobs.

What's a lib to do?

[Dead Man Flying]

Do you guys actually have any idea how hiring in academia works?  I'm not talking about the tenure process, but rather hiring for non-tenured assistant professor positions fresh out of graduate school?  This is where you'll be picking up that 80/20 ratio unless there's some proof that Republicans and Democrats are evenly split at the assistant professor positions, but Republicans later fail to obtain tenure to a much greater degree than Democrats.  I highly doubt that scenario.

I simply don't see how political affiliation plays a role in this process.  I'm not really certain where such information would ever come up in the course of the process unless it was explicit in the applicant's work (which it usually isn't), and having witnessed the process and the deliberations among professors here, I know that political affiliation had no bearing on the hiring decision.

Seems like somebody's making a big to-do about nothing.  

-- Todd/Leviathn

[miko2d]

Sure. The liberals believe it's their duty to indoctrinate the students to the right philosofy - not just teach them sciences. So they must keep conservatives away from the teaching positions.

 Libarals are ideologues - at least much more so than conservatives because they are collectivists. Being individualists, the conservatives can hardly create any exclusive ideology.

 How the heck do you act together as a group if you claim that treating people as groups is a fallacy? Who do you keep out?
 Liberals have no such problem. They group first. Then they "temporarily" sacrifice any principles that hurt their unity - no problem in supporting racism in fight against racism or in supporting quotas and restrictions in a fight for diversity.

 miko

[Eagler]

Originally posted by midnight Target
College professors, representing the most highly educated Americans, ...

LOL

[Thud]

Originally posted by miko2d
Sure. The liberals believe it's their duty to indoctrinate the students to the right philosofy - not just teach them sciences. So they must keep conservatives away from the teaching positions.

Sure. The liberals are just a big leftist movement trying to ake over the world. I'm glad your voices warned you in time (well, you and McCarthy that is).

[Dead Man Flying]

Let's go over the three most important elements in obtaining a tenure track assistant professor position at a university.

(1)  Publications.  The hiring committee looks at both the quantity of publications and also the quality of the refereed journals in which they're published.  This is of primary importance.  A body of work establishes in the minds of the hiring committee that the applicant has a proven research agenda.  Nobody in any school is going to turn down a Republican who's published a half dozen articles in the top journals.

(2)  Job talk.  This can make or break a job candidate who's on the bubble.  All job candidates make a thirty minute presentation of their research to members of the departmental faculty, after which they spend anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours answering questions and defending their work.  AT NO POINT DOES POLITICAL AFFILIATION COME UP HERE, and asking a question along those lines would be considered entirely unprofessional.

(3)  Teaching experience.  Though not as important as the other categories, departments will look at the range and quality of teaching assignments taken on by job candidates at the graduate level.  This indicates their willingness and ability to handle tough teaching assignments as a professional academic.

Nowhere does political affiliation come into play here.  And unless someone can prove to me that the weeding out of Republicans occurs in the tenure review stage (where, after seven years, the faculty probably knows one's political affiliation) rather than the initial assistant professor hiring stage, this whole thing is yet another uninformed squeakfest.

-- Todd/Leviathn

[Dead Man Flying]

Originally posted by john9001
the dream of every liberal is to be a tenured collage prof.
easy "work", short hours,good pay,pleasant working conditions, can't be fired, good retirment.

Easy work?  Short hours?  SHORT HOURS?  ROFL.

The inability to be fired is offset in part by the fact that the "apprenticeship" stage of academia (the assistant professor, non-tenured position) lasts longer than any other discipline, and the review for tenure is the most rigorous and completely draining process that just about any professional will ever suffer through.

-- Todd/Leviathn

[Maverick]

An old saying comes to mind. Please remember that it is not true in all cases....

"Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach."
 Sound like the situation that started this thread???

Seriously, in my experiances in education, at least in the first 6 grades the teachres were predominately liberal. In one case I had a principal display a definate bias against military people in a conversation. In the university library where my wife works people who have a military background are openly shunned. I have seen it in action. Since those same people knew I was both military and police oriented they refuse to speak to me whenever we are together at a "social gathering" or I visit the library. Several of these folkls have never spoken to me in 4 years. My wife can't wait to retire and tell them to take a flying leap off the roof.

[Eagler]

two words

Teachers Union