Jonathan Zimmerman thinks the answer is yes (thanks to John Fea):
At Columbia University, 650 employees wrote checks for the Obama campaign, while only 21 made donations to Mitt Romney. And at Brown, 129 faculty members gave to Mr. Obama, and just one staff member – that’s right, a single individual – donated to Mr. Romney.
It’s not just an Ivy League thing, either. At the University of Wisconsin, only 4.5 percent of faculty and staff donations since 2011 have gone to Republicans. At the University of Connecticut, just 3 percent of campaign donations went to the GOP.
Is this a problem? I think it is. And might a conscious hiring effort on the part of universities – that is, an affirmative action program – help remedy it? I think it would.
Forget affirmative action. Let’s have Conservatism Studies programs. It worked for religion (for a while, anyway).
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
We have conservative studies programs. They are called “History,” “sociology,” and “anthropology.”
Isn’t a little odd to use “wrote a check to Mitt Romney” as our test for whether someone’s a conservative? Sheesh. Let the Porch be the Porch!
Isn’t a little odd to use “wrote a check to Mitt Romney” as our test for whether someone’s a conservative? Sheesh. Let the Porch be the Porch!
No it isn’t odd and you haven’t any excuse for your misunderstanding. People considering these questions have to select the best available operational measures and this is what is available. You might do better with a more involved sociological inquiry into the attitudes of faculty making use of a mix of surveys and personal observation, but that costs.
“People considering these questions have to select the best available operational measures and this is what is available.”
“Have to,” eh?