The extent of the failure of the American university system has been revealed in a new survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression that confirms only 20% of faculty members say a conservative would fit well in their department.
Or the 47% of conservative faculty members who feel unable to voice their opinions because of how others might react.
Or the 35% who reported toning down their written work to avoid controversy, which incidentally was four times those turning in that response when the same question was asked in the 1950s, during McCarthyism.
The survey cites a biology professor “fired for saying X and Y chromosomes determine sex,” a simple scientific truth.
The survey contacted 6,269 faculty members at 55 major colleges and universities over a three-month period and found many admitting they hide their political views to avoid punishment.
The results showed 87% of faculty “reported finding it difficult to have an open and honest conversation on campus about at least one hot button political topic.”
And 14% reported “being disciplined or threatened with discipline for their teaching, research, academic discussions, or off-campus speech.”
“The McCarthy era is considered a low point in the history of American academic freedom with witchhunts, loyalty tests, and blacklisting in universities across the country,” said Nathan Honeycutt, a FIRE official. “That today’s scholars feel less free to speak their minds than in the 1950s is a blistering indictment of the current state of academic freedom and discourse.”
Among troublesome topics is Hamas launching a war on, and slaughtering, innocent Israeli civilians and that government’s response, racism, transgenderism and affirmative action.
Other topics on which open and honest discussions are rare are the presidential election, abortion, hate speech, gun control, climate change.
More than half, 55%, of conservative faculty members say they sometimes hide their political views in order to keep their jobs. Only 17% of liberals said the same.
Honeycutt said, “There are very few conservative faculty. If they’re not expressing their views, then students are even less exposed to conservative perspectives than one might expect based on the numbers.”
“Respondents were also more likely to express skepticism that conservatives would be welcomed within their departments. While 71% of faculty said that a liberal individual would fit into their departments either ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ well, only 20% said the same of a conservative individual,” FIRE reported.
The report added, “Political statements from universities and colleges were unpopular across the political spectrum, with majorities of conservative (86%), moderate (76%), and liberal faculty (57%) opposed to the practice. Conservative faculty were also strongly opposed to mandatory DEI pledges (85%), as were a majority of moderate faculty (59%). Liberal faculty were split, with a little under half in favor (47%) of DEI pledges, but a third opposed (35%).”
