You may have been told once that if you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart, and if you are not a conservative when you get older, you have no brains. Nowhere is this adage more true than college campuses.
It is often said that universities — particularly liberal arts schools — are overwhelmingly leftist and that liberal professors indoctrinate their students into their radical political ideologies. This is an overgeneralization of all colleges and all professors. However, anyone who has been to college or is currently enrolled at a university knows that the political attitudes of most students and the overall ethos of the college are liberal in nature.
This is a result of gradual changes to educational curriculums that require students to be educated on social issues framed in a certain light that does not allow for contradictory opinions. A good example of this is when universities require students to take diversity training courses under the assumption that without their instruction, people cannot be decent to one another. This process begins as a college freshman and is often called “general education.” While it can be assumed that the intentions of higher education officials are good and that they do not intentionally try to drown out conservative voices, that is precisely what they have done.
Recent research conducted by the National Association of Scholars regarding registered voting college professors found, “the D:R [Democrat to Republican] registration ratio has increased over time, from roughly 4.5:1 in 1999 to 10:1 among elite liberal arts colleges and social science departments now.”
While this is not a complete picture of the political leanings of all college professors, it does say that most politically involved professors are Democrats. So reasonably the next question to ask is, why do college professors tend to be liberal in their political beliefs?
As previously mentioned, the data we have on hand is incomplete and even self-report surveys have the potential for self-censorship due to immersion in a political environment that is accustomed to virtue signaling. It is very likely that there are many more professors that hold conservative beliefs but feel as though they risk jeopardizing their social and professional standings within their department or university.
However, the reason that most college professors tend to hold liberal beliefs is because of the identity that surrounds their occupation. The idea of a professor in the minds of many Americans is a person that has superior intelligence, is an innovator in societal values and is confident in themself. Evidence suggests that many Americans consider the occupation to be inherently liberal. As a result, many liberally–minded people have flocked to higher education jobs because of the perception that it will be an environment that conforms to their beliefs.
The opposite is true for conservatives, who do not feel that higher education is a welcoming place for their ideas.
Professors hold an immense degree of power over students not only because they have the power to determine a student’s grade but also because of their superior age and accomplishments. A student with a politically driven professor is almost always inclined to agree with this professor out of fear of contradicting someone with authority over them and ostracization.
“I noticed that she [the professor] would sort of grade based on how people presented themselves or really what they believed and I did not want my grades to tank at all because of it,” Olivia Dabbs, a conservative Junior at the College of Charleston and former Winthrop student, said. “I said to myself, it wasn’t worth it. I’m not going to change your [the professor’s] mind, which wasn’t my point to begin with. But I just felt that this would come in between me and what was good for my college grades.”
“I definitely did not speak up or defend people that I did agree with. And looking back I really wish I had,” Dabbs said. This is an unbalanced power dynamic that places pressure on the student to conform to a “group-think” mentality.
A Gallup poll from 2019 revealed that “84% of Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party said they have a great deal or a fair amount of confidence in college and university professors to act in the best interests of the public. Only about half (48%) of Republicans and Republican leaners said the same.”
This data shows that a majority of Republicans feel that college professors are not instructing students in a way that will benefit society. It is reasonable to believe that this is because conservatives do not feel as though the curriculum being taught is inclusive to conservative ideas.
Perhaps when the country is less polarized and people realize that both parties pit us against one another, we can begin to feel more intellectually free.
Photo by Kaily Paddle
Maybe because liberal minded people are more open-minded? Or maybe because college students who only ever had their conservative family members tell them political info are having their eyes and mind opened in an open environment? Maybe don’t victimize conservatives lol.