Studies find Republican profs scarce in academia

By Ryan Groshong

Democratic professors outnumber their Republican counterparts in colleges and universities nationwide, two recent studies by a Santa Clara professor have found.

The studies, released in November by economics professor Daniel Klein, highlight what critics say is a growing trend in academia, and what some call a lack of ideological diversity.

Klein examined voter registration records of the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford faculty and conducted a survey of more than 1,000 professors nationwide.

At UC Berkeley, Klein found 445 Democrats and 45 Republicans, a ratio of 10 to 1. At Stanford, he found 275 Democrats and 36 Republicans, an 8-to-1 ratio.

Nationally, those disparities can widen. Among Klein's findings, some faculty -- such as in the fields of anthropology -- Democrats outnumber conservatives by as much as 30 to 1.

Andrew Western, a junior economics and political science major and Klein's co-author on one of the studies, says that the academic environment can be hostile and unwelcome towards conservatives.

"I don't think it's that conservatives don't have a heart to teach or an interest in academics," says Klein, who classifies himself as a libertarian. "I think it's more they're intimidated or don't want to go into an environment where there would be hostilities and they wouldn't be welcome."

While Klein did not want to comment on bias among Santa Clara faculty, some question if the university seems to shut out ideological views.

"Administrators really value the ethnic diversity but they don't seem to value ideological diversity nearly as much," said Susan Anderson, vice president of the Santa Clara College Republicans.

Helen Moritz, the vice provost for undergraduate education, says that it's "natural that the Democratic party is the party that is allied with the educational establishment."

She says because the university stands in "solidarity with especially the under-served and the poor," there would thus be more liberal faculty here.

Moritz points to the Higher Education Faculty Survey from 2001-02, which asked professors where they stand on the political spectrum. At Santa Clara, almost 60 percent would classify themselves as "liberal," as opposed to about 8 percent who say they're conservative.

According to the data, however, there was no distinction of how faculty aligned themselves by political party, or distinctions of "liberal" -- whether they are a Democrat or a libertarian, for example.

"I wasn't surprised by the numbers. I think there's a real strong imbalance towards liberals in the academic profession," said Terri Peretti, chair of the political science department, on Klein's study.

But neither Peretti nor Moritz believe that the quality of education at Santa Clara was negatively affected by a heavily Democratic faculty.

"In my experience, I haven't seen strong persistent complaints about a faculty member being biased. In a way I don't know how it would be treated because it hasn't happened," she said. And Moritz says that faculty are "not in the business of trying to indoctrinate."

Others believed that conservatives simply choose to get their message out using avenues other than academia.

"Liberals stay in academia and conservatives go into more practical applications, like they go to the Republican party or Republican think-tanks or into Republican administrations and they have been successful in appealing to American public opinion," Peretti said.

Klein's findings gained national media attention last quarter, appearing in The New York Times and other news outlets.

"Even if every professor was a democrat I don't think necessarily all of them would be so intellectually dishonest as to only push democratic viewpoints," Western said. "I think that there are a lot of honest people from both political viewpoints."

Political science professor Peter Minowitz says that the academic world "should stand for clarity of thinking and expression and so if we're going to talk about diversity and cherish diversity we need to explain very clearly why we're seeking this kind of diversity (ethnic) and not that kind of diversity (ideological)," Minowitz said.

But Stephanie Edwards, a sophomore member of College Democrats who considers herself very liberal, believed that diversity in all forms was important.

"I weigh them both the same because I think that whatever difference and whatever life background you can bring to the student population or to the faculty population will add a new dimension to our school, which can never be bad," she said.

Peretti referred to legal requirements, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, for racial and gender equality, and that no such requirement exists for ideological equality.

"We have to provide equal opportunity by law, there is no similar legal requirement that we provide a balanced viewpoint in the classroom."

Klein believed that one way to remedy the discrepancy between democratic and republican professors was simple: "hire more libertarians and conservatives."

Edwards, though, stressed the importance of ideological diversity for the formation of opinions.

"You can't have opinions unless you have your views challenged. It's the best way to learn. If nobody ever stands up to you and says 'I think you're wrong,' you're never going to know what you really believe in."

* Contact Ryan Groshong at (408) 554-4546 or rgroshong@scu.edu.