>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 3/31/2005 11:56:09 AM >>> Thursday, March 31, 2005 Conservative Professors Are Less Likely to Advance in Academe, Study Finds By PIPER FOGG A report released this week offers evidence that American academe is dominated by political liberals, and that conservatives are less likely to attain jobs at top colleges. The report, based on a study that relied on data from a fairly large sample of institutions, is the first to attempt to answer the question of whether conservatives in academe face discrimination in hiring.
Published in The Forum, a journal of applied research in contemporary politics, the report is based on a 1999 survey of 1,643 faculty members at 183 colleges and universities in the United States. The study was conducted by Stanley Rothman, a professor emeritus of government at Smith College; S. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a research group affiliated with George Mason University and supported by conservative foundations; and Neil Nevitte, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto. <<<<<>>>>> fwiw: above-named journal was founded and is edited by political scientist nelson polsby, polsby (whose conservatism hasn't hampered his almost 40 years in uc berkeley poli sci dept) is on advisory board of lichter's george mason 'think tank' and has been affiliated with american enterprise institute for years... polsby made initial splash in u.s. political science with mid-60s polemical screed about how elite theorists 'critique power' while pluralists 'study power', pluralists ostensibly having no assumptions... polsby's traditional pluralist approach (his mentor robert dahl eventually moved away from this narrow position), maintains that when a person writes a letter to an elected official requesting something, this act is an expressed political interest appropriate to study, however, when that same person loses her/his job because company has outsourced/moved off-shore, the individual's need for government protection from such arbitrary abandonment is not considered appropriate subject for 'value neutral' behavioral analysis (analyst has projected need onto unemployed worker and has become more of an advocate than observer, blah, blah, blah)... as for lichter, he was aei fellow for good number of years, he is paid talking head for fox news, and his 'bean-counting' methodology has long been discredited social science... two decades ago, reed irvine of accuracy in media started spin-off called accuracy in academia (i had several encounters with aia students at university of central florida), irvine claimed that there were 10,000 marxists teaching in u.s. colleges and universities, of course, there were/are about 1M folks teaching at said institutions... issue for conservatives at that time was not 'marxists' per se(much as issue during red scare wasn't 'communism'), their desire has always been to undermine legitimacy of liberalism and eliminate liberals... btw: horowitz did study a few years ago similar to that of current one, he found 57% of 'liberal arts' profs identifying as dems, not nearly as large as propaganda suggests, but here again, 'bean counting' method says nothing about what such folks do in classroom... michael hoover -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
