It's diverse if you're liberal

[bemildred]

Very amusing stuff, this "conservative" wants affirmative action for "conservative" professors. I would wager this tool is too wrapped up in his outrage to even consider what his demand really amounts too. I suppose he could be aiming for irony, but for the most part he doesn't sound like that, to me, he sounds serious. Of course, he is selling a book too ...

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Yet, whether demographic diversity enhances learning is still debated among social scientists. Intellectual diversity clearly does so, however. As we discuss in our book, studies show that students respond better to multiple ideological perspectives, which stimulates critical thinking and creativity, improves understanding and decision-making quality, and facilitates moral development.

Our sociopolitical values are fundamental to who we are as individuals. It should not be surprising that conservative students feel alienated when their perspectives are excluded from the classroom. A 2009 study by professors Matthew Woessner and April Kelly-Woessner found that conservative students lack academic role models, have more distant relationships with their professors and have fewer opportunities to do research with professors (particularly on sociopolitical issues).

Such factors may partly explain why there are so few conservative professors. Conservatives and libertarians are becoming increasingly rare in academia, outnumbered by liberals by 3 to 1 even in fields known to be relatively conservative, such as economics, by more than 5 to 1 in moderate fields such as political science and by 20 to 1 or more in many fields, such as sociology and anthropology. Studies of professors' party affiliations and self-reported political views show that, on average, liberal professors outnumber conservatives and libertarians by about 8 to 1, with the imbalance being much greater at elite institutions.

So what is the solution? For the same reasons colleges and universities are sensitive to race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, they should include and respect a range of political ideas. In upholding affirmative action in student admissions, the Supreme Court said in its 2003 Grutter decision that diversity policies are legally justified because of the educational benefits they produce. If so, then schools should include conservatives and libertarians in faculty hiring and admissions.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-redding-diverse-universities-20101025,0,2959355.story

[mgc1961]

1. What about the library, Mr. Redding?

It contains a wide range of books from which a student can choose to augment their classroom experience thereby blunting the possibility of political seepage in professorial lectures.

Perhaps the problem lies in conservative and libertarian student's failure to discover the library.

[Doctor_J]

2. Yes, by all means, let's make sure that the science department

has representatives from the Noah's Ark contingent.

Cons are by definition rigid, closed-minded authoritarians; they boast about how they want to take the country back to the 18th century. Not really a good fit in a position that REQUIRES thinking freely.

[mudplanet]

3. John Stuart Mill

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.