"If you loathe political debate, join the faculty of an American university"
I think everyone whose been to college has noted that the great majority of political comments made by professors assume that everyone understands Republicans are at least foolish and very likely hateful and devious. Professors teaching about the civil rights here in Collegeville have been known to assert in class that denying gays the right to marry is just like preventing interracial marriage, or to flippantly refer to the President's ignorance. That seems to be acceptable behavior in this community. But, I feel sure most academics would find a conservative take on the gay marriage issue, for example, unacceptable. At least I would cringe for fear if a teaching assistant said in class something like, "As we've discussed today, Martin Luther King's religious beliefs were central to his involvement in and the success of the stuggle for civil rights in the 1960s. This evening, you may want to take some time to consider what this means for the debate over gay marriage. I certainly think it shows that adherence traditional Christian religous principles is of crucial importance."

What I don't know is whether I think that political comments like that are all inappropriate. My eventual PhD will show that I'm an expert in history, not in current political debates, and I'll get my job and my paycheck (hopefully) for talking about that stuff. On the other hand, it may well be that being a good teacher is about more than passing on technical knowledge, and showing the relevance of the past to the present, and demonstrating the pitfalls of using the past in present arguments, fits squarely within that role. For now, I lean towards the "check your politics at the door" approach, but that's evolving. What's clearly not appropriate, though, is different rules for conservaties and liberals, and there clearly are different rules.

I'm starting to think, however, that help may be on the way. The Economist has just written the latest in what appears to me to be an increasing drumbeat to address the scarcity of conservative voices in academia. It points out the lastest study showing a massive disparity in the political views of academics, and argues that the "the current situation makes a mockery of the very legal opinion [and rationale] that underpins the diversity fad." It also points out that the lack of conservaties hurts academia's ablity to influence popular culture, and that it's really hard to fix.

As a conservative, at least in many ways, in academia, I certainly hope that this drumbeat from the press and politicians will open up job and scholarship opportunities that are currently not closed to me, but are not as open as they otherwise would be. I'm not at all sure how that should happen - statutorily enforced affirmative action by voter registration seems like a very bad idea. But I'm hopefull that I'll be in the entering wedge of a new generation of conservative academics.



- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 8:40 AM