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  he
current crisis has exposed the academy's true colors. Whereas most
Americans support the war effort, university faculties are populated
by professors who only want to give peace a chance. What is to be
done?
It's not
surprising that professors are mostly left wing. Professors' leftist
beliefs primarily stem from their economic outlook. Most people in
the not-for-profit sector are usually at least liberal (e.g. social
workers, government employees, state-subsidized artists.)
Not-for-profit workers voluntarily forgo the capitalist dream of
achieving wealth through the marketplace and instead rely upon the
government and private contributions for support. The conservative
economic agenda of strengthening the business sector by reducing the
burden of government is likely to have diminished appeal to those
who work for organizations which aren't taxed or significantly
regulated.
The large
number of non-U.S. citizens in American colleges necessarily makes
these schools less patriotic. You wouldn't expect an American-based
professor who is of Chinese citizenship to be as pro-U.S. as the
average American is. As long as U.S. high schools continue to
provide deficient training in math and science however, American
colleges will have to continue to heavily recruit students and
faculty from abroad if the schools want to remain world
class.
A less benign
reason why colleges are so politically correct is because leftists
in many academic departments will not hire outside their
intellectual gene pool. If a corporation uses political criteria in
hiring its profits will suffer and its owners will complain. Since
colleges are not actually owned by anyone, few complain when they
sacrifice their teaching mission for politics.
Republican
governors should complain, however, when public universities use
politically discriminatory hiring criteria. States devote vast
resources to public universities and governors are justified in
insuring that campuses don't discriminate on the basis of ideology.
Democratic governors are unlikely to take on left-wing professors.
Republican governors, however, should insure that people who share
their beliefs are allowed to teach at their public
universities.
Campus liberals
would of course decry any attempt to restrict their hiring freedom.
Liberals, however, adamantly believe that statistical under
representation implies discrimination. Since universities openly
discriminate in favor of underrepresented racial minorities, they
would have little justification in complaining about a governor who
forces them to at least explain why, say, less than five percent of
their humanities professors are republicans.
The best way
for governors to reduce the influence of leftists in public
universities would be to insure that professors are hired and
promoted primarily on the basis of their teaching skills. Currently,
most public universities care far more about research than teaching.
For most professors in the humanities and social sciences (excluding
economics) conducting research means getting published in leftist
journals. Practically the only way for a women's-studies professor
to get a lifetime college appointment is for her to contribute to
the literature on why America is racist, sexist, and homophobic. If
instead professors' career advancements were determined by their
teaching skills, then professors would have to satisfy the needs of
their students, not the ideological demands of radical journal
editors.
The problem of
ideological discrimination at private colleges must be approached
somewhat differently from that at public universities because it
would be inappropriate for governors to attempt to alter the
political composition of private schools. Alumni, however, could use
their contributions to exercise vast influence over private
colleges. Most private-college faculties would rather become
ideologically diverse than suffer a pay cut that would result if
alumni contributions significantly dropped.
Imagine if you
found out that the National Review Online received significant
funding from the Democratic party. Wouldn't you lose even more
respect for Democrats knowing that they are helping support a forum
that is manifestly hostile to their beliefs? The contempt that
left-wing colleges feel towards conservatives is undoubtedly
intensified by the knowledge that much of their funding comes from
Republican governors and alumni. If we're stupid enough to support
them, perhaps we even deserve their derision?
Students also
bear much of the blame for political correctness on campus. This is
not because students themselves are overwhelmingly left wing, but
rather because they are often apathetic and infrequently challenge
their leftist professors. Questioning a professor's politics is
unlikely to endanger a student's grade. Even most left-wing
professors prefer students who talk and challenge to those who
quietly submit. For most professors, arguing with students in class
is far more interesting than presenting the material they have
already presented year after year. | 
