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Eugene, Ore. - When I began examining the political affiliation of faculty at the University of Oregon, the lone conservative professor I spoke with cautioned that I would "make a lot of people unhappy."
Though I mostly brushed off his warning – assuming that academia would be interested in such discourse – I was careful to frame my research for a column for the school newspaper diplomatically.
The University of Oregon (UO), where I study journalism, invested millions annually in a diversity program that explicitly included "political affiliation" as a component. Yet, out of the 111 registered Oregon voters in the departments of journalism, law, political science, economics, and sociology, there were only two registered Republicans.
A number of conservative students told me they felt Republican ideas were frequently caricatured and rarely presented fairly. Did the dearth of conservative professors on campus and apparent marginalization of ideas on the right belie the university's commitment to providing a marketplace of ideas?
In my column, published in the campus newspaper The Oregon Daily Emerald June 1, I suggested that such a disparity hurt UO. I argued that the lifeblood of higher education was subjecting students to diverse viewpoints and the university needed to work on attracting more conservative professors.
What's so remarkable is that I hadn't actually advocated Republican ideas or conservative ideas. In fact, Im not a conservative, nor a Republican. I simply believe in the concept of diversity – a primarily liberal idea – and think that we suffer when we don't include ideas we find unappealing.
Originally posted by SonyAD
Might be a problem, if you value being educated by morons.
Originally posted by Aggie Man
reply to post by ElectricUniverse
You will find this "trend" at just about any university. Professors tend to have more liberal views and are not as "narrow minded". So, it makes sense that they tend to lean towards democratic or independent political views. Is it a problem? Only if you want to be taught that "the world is flat" and "the sun revolves around the earth".
Just my 2-cents
Originally posted by Nohup
And yet, somehow, I don't see where Conservative political ideology in the U.S. is in any in danger of becoming extinct. Why do you suppose that is?
Maybe because you should give people (including students) more credit for researching and exploring various political viewpoints, and making a decision for themselves about what they want to endorse -- if any.
It doesn't seem to be unduly influencing you. So what's the problem? Unless you want to consider yourself to be so much smarter than all the other student "sheeple" out there.
Originally posted by ELECTRICkoolaidZOMBIEtest
...........
its got nothing to do with the fact that people are more likely to be democrats the more education they get
Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
When students are not given a choice, and are instead indoctrinated towards an idea, they are more likely to accept such ideas as being true. More so since they haven't experienced true Socialism, or even Communism.
Originally posted by getreadyalready
A couple of good posts, ruined by calling all conservatives stupid?!
Originally posted by Nohup
I think you'd have to prove that. And the strength of Conservative political organization and thought in the U.S. (even amongst college students) would tend to dispute your theory that people of a certain age will blindly accept anything taught to them.
Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
Nearly all my professors are Democrats. Isn't that a problem?