Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dr. Lori Reesor’s sent an email last week about the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments survey, asking about different communities’ experiences on campus and administration’s general mission to create a safe and productive learning environment for all. I am writing an open letter to IU administrators to encourage them to consider what is perhaps one of the largest disenfranchised groups — conservatives — on IU’s campus.
With research findings in his book “Why are professors liberal and why do conservatives care,” sociologist Neil Gross shows Republicans are grossly underrepresented in academia. He estimates half of professors subscribe to a liberal ideology. Economic conservatives are underrepresented in academia, at just four percent of professors according to Gross. Gallup numbers conservatives nationwide at 42 percent.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, a self identified liberal, wrote about a dinner party he attended. He quotes a black evangelical professor saying that he faces far more discrimination for his religious views than his skin color.
When Kristof discussed this with liberal academic friends, their responses ranged from dismissive to approving. One went so far as to equate hiring conservatives with hiring idiots. Swap the word conservative with any other minority, and you would have a lawsuit on your hands.
A peer-reviewed study from Tilburg University in the Netherlands from 2012 reveals a third of liberal academics proudly admitting they would discriminate against conservative candidates for jobs and promotions.
If African Americans or women or any other demographic group were underrepresented by a factor of ten and a half in college faculty, liberals would be burning the quad.
With such a poisonous environment in academia, it is not surprising that conservative students are likewise marginalized on campus.
While I attended the Conservative Political Action Committee last week I spoke with many students from other schools that shared my experience. Nearly ubiquitous in our conversations were complaints about the echo chambers on our campuses at large.
For most conservatives, not a day goes by where we do not endure snide comments about our beliefs or gross generalizations directed toward our ideology, often coming from the ones leading the class.
It is so bad many choose not to speak up, so they silently endure this fate for four years. This harms everyone’s education because exposure to different ideologies is necessary for the intellectual growth of students.
If this sort of hostile environment existed for any other group on campus, the howls of the left would be deafening, but because the bias is against their political opponents, far-left campus liberals comfort themselves with thoughts of their righteous struggle against the right.
IU administrators must rectify this situation. Efforts should be taken to ensure professors do not bully and marginalize students, and conservatives should be sought when universities recruit this faculty to create an ideologically diverse campus.
The immorality of what goes on daily in campus hiring offices and classrooms is ignored and trivialized by those that fashion themselves crusaders for equality. It is time IU’s administration protected all community members not just those they agree with.
zaochamb@umail.iu.edu
