Funny they did not mention the economics department. They may vote democrat but I bet the vast majority are solid neoclassical's with the odd Keynesian macroeconomist thrown in for pluralist measure. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jacob Segal" <jpsegal at rcn.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 6:13 AM Subject: [lbo-talk] Professors and politics
> Political debate sweeps campus
>
> http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-446909.html
> BY HUNTER LEWIS : The Herald-Sun
>
> Feb 12, 2004
>
> DURHAM -- The Duke Conservative Union wanted a dialogue about what it
> perceived as an overwhelming prevalence of registered Democrats teaching
in
> the humanities.
>
> Instead, the group lit a political firestorm.
>
> In the five days since the group bought a $500 full-page ad in the Duke
> student newspaper -- The Chronicle -- highlighting "massive discrepancies"
> between the number of registered Republicans and Democrats in several
> departments, the campus has become embroiled in a spirited debate about
> political bias both in the classroom and in faculty hiring.
>
> The debate has played itself out on the back pages of The Chronicle and
> across the campus -- from dining halls and dorm rooms to the president's
> office -- securing Duke a place in an ongoing national debate about
academic
> freedom and the role of ideology in the classroom.
>
> In the ad, the DCU published the political affiliation of faculty from
> several departments, including history, literature, sociology and English.
> Its claim was that the departments had a ratio of 32-to-0, 11-to-0, 9-to-0
> and 18-to-1, respectively, in favor of registered Democrats over
> Republicans.
>
> A similar study by The Center for the Study of Popular Culture found large
> disparities in political affiliation at Duke, as well as at 31 other elite
> colleges and universities. The California-based center is dedicated to
> taking politics off the college campus, according to its Web site.
>
> "Basically, it's sheer hypocrisy that on one hand racial diversity is
> important in education, but intellectual diversity isn't," Duke senior and
> DCU member Madison Kitchens said Thursday. "In a sense, [the departments]
> have been caught with their pants down."
>
> Kitchens, a Libertarian, said he's concerned that the disparities in
> political affiliation have trickled down to the classroom, where some
> students have complained that their conservative viewpoints are either
> ridiculed or ignored.
>
> Several Duke officials and faculty countered that assertion this week,
> questioning the validity of the numbers and saying the departments
mentioned
> make up a small fraction of the 97 departments and programs at Duke. They
> also said Duke doesn't make hiring decisions based on political
affiliation
> and that being affiliated with a party doesn't necessarily mean someone
has
> a liberal or conservative agenda.
>
> Robert Brandon, philosophy chairman, drew the ire of several students and
> garnered national attention when The Chronicle quoted him Tuesday as
saying:
>
> "We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart
Mill
> said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of
> conservatives we will never hire. Mill's analysis may go some way towards
> explaining the power of the Republican Party in our society and the
relative
> scarcity of Republicans in academia."
>
> In a Thursday statement, Brandon said he received "venomous, hate-filled
> e-mails" in response to his comments, but he denied that there was any
> political bias involved in the philosophy department's hiring. He also
> clarified the statement that he made to The Chronicle.
>
> "I will go on the record as saying that some conservatives are stupid, but
> so are some liberals; there is plenty of stupidity to go around," he said.
>
> Brandon, however, did suggest that a larger proportion of academics might
be
> liberal. But to change the long-term political landscape of academia,
> conservative Duke students who object to being taught by liberal
professors
> should "study hard, do well in school, go on to get a Ph.D and get
yourself
> a job teaching at a university," he said.
>
> Duke President Nan Keohane also weighed in Thursday and acknowledged the
> importance of the debate.
>
> "For me, the question is not the personal political views of members of
our
> faculty or their party affiliation, it's the quality of their scholarship
> and the strength of their teaching," Keohane said in a statement released
> Thursday.
>
> Keohane said most Duke professors are careful not to let their own
> ideologies color their teaching.
>
> "But I am concerned when I hear, as I occasionally do, from a student who
> reports that he or she feels hesitant about raising an issue or viewpoint
> because of a fear of ridicule by classmates or a teacher," she said.
>
> Robert Munger, chairman of the political science department, said he was
> impressed by Duke's intellectual diversity, which he called "relatively
> healthy" compared to other universities.
>
> Still, Munger recalled a recent meeting in which he heard a fellow
> department chairman say it was Duke's job to confront conservative
students
> with their hypocrisies and that they didn't need to say much to liberal
> students because they already understood the world.
>
> "There was no big protest [at the meeting], and that was wrong," Munger
> said.
>
> Munger said the history department's political makeup surprised him,
> however.
>
> "Thirty-five Democrats and no Republicans? If you flip a coin 35 times,
and
> it ends up heads every time, that's not a fair coin," he said.
>
> The people who say, 'I don't think ideology is appropriate in hiring would
> have to look at the process that provides such a skewed outcome," he said.
>
> Duke freshman Stephen Miller, president of Duke's chapter of Students for
> Academic Freedom, called for Duke to be more transparent about its hiring
> process.
>
> While that's unlikely, Miller said North Carolina lawmakers would do well
to
> adopt an Academic Bill of Rights. Colorado legislators are considering
such
> a bill now, he added. The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, led by
> activist David Horowitz, is urging federal and state lawmakers to adopt
the
> bill.
>
> Intended to depoliticize universities, the bill, in part, calls for taking
> steps to promote intellectual diversity whether through faculty hiring or
> the selection of campus speakers. Critics claim the bill would stymie
> academic freedom, however, because a university's administration or a
state
> government then could meddle in academic matters.
>
> Horowitz has set off controversies at both Duke and UNC in recent years.
At
> Duke, he placed an ad in The Chronicle that attacked the concept of
> reparations for slavery. He also ripped UNC, calling it a "one-party
> school," where conservative opinions are stifled.
>
> Regardless of a person's party affiliation or ideology, many Duke students
> welcomed this week's debate.
>
> "One of the great things about college is open dialogue, regardless of
> affiliation," said senior Alex Niejelow, a registered Democrat and member
of
> Duke Student Government. "To see something in the paper like that and hear
> the conversations at lunch, it's exciting. It should be embraced at a
campus
> like this."
>
>
>
>
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