Bias not needed in class
Professors don’t balance their own political agendas
Commentary
The Reveille, Louisiana State University

Thousands of dollars, late nights spent buried in textbooks, early classes and sleepless finals weeks: all these sacrifices made for what end?
Common sense would tell you these things would help you gain a college education and allow you to make a better life for yourself. But frequently students endure classroom atmospheres that are slanted toward a professor’s world view and then face a myriad of consequences for offering a differing opinion.

The long-standing pillars of higher education always have been academic freedom, intellectual honesty and the freedom of expression. Recently, diversity has become a key goal of higher education too. These things are meant to foster an educational experience that encourages freedom of thought and an education formed by critical thinking.

Modern college courses often lose those educational principles when professors fail to balance their political agendas with opposing views and ignore facts in favor of opinion. Universities search high and low for faculty members of different races, genders and sexual preferences, but diversity of thought is never given much consideration. Only diversity in the professors’ sociopolitical philosophies would give you differing views on issues such as abortion, capitalism and religion.

Studies continue to show that while universities seek diversity as a priority, the dominance of liberal professors continues to grow. Last year UCLA’s Higher Education Research institute polled 32,000 full-time undergraduate professors. It found that 48 percent identified as “liberal” or “far left” while only 18 percent described themselves as “conservative” or “far right.”

Typically professors who prescribe to a conservative philosophy end up teaching classes in the hard sciences. Paul Kengor detailed a recent study he conducted in an issue of Policy Review in which he examined the political makeup of 190 social science and humanities professors at many of the nation’s top universities, such as Cornell, Stanford and the University of Colorado. Only six Republicans were found while 184 were registered Democrats. These are the classes where professors can indoctrinate students with their views on politics, religion, morality and other subjects.

Some say a professor’s political ideology does not impact how they approach the classroom. While some professors are capable of putting aside their agendas, examples of bias can be found at nearly every university.

Students detail how, time after time, professors introduce topics not included on the course description, squelch opposing opinions in discussion, misrepresent facts and encourage students to adopt the professor's point of view.

Cases of obvious bias are troubling enough, but when a teacher’s opinion is taught as fact, students become indoctrinated without ever realizing they were taught lies or things that might not be totally certain. This often is the case in history classes when teachers present an unhistorical account of people or events.

With the lack of accountability in the classroom and balance in teachers’ views, how are students to trust the education they receive? Are they merely becoming indoctrinated members of the liberal left?

Accountability is needed. Web sites such as (www.noindoctrination.org) offer students a venue to air their grievances, which will hopefully usher in change. Administrators should encourage balanced views to be presented in the classroom and punish those who use it as a political soapbox. With a university culture that is so in love with diversity and promoting it through affirmative action programs, maybe we should consider adding conservatives to the list of those who receive special minority consideration.

Jason Dore is a columnist for The Reveille at Louisiana State University. This column was distributed by U-Wire.

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2003