• DOI:10.1093/POQ/NFJ009
• Corpus ID: 145569095

Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony? The Political Orientations and Educational Values of Professors

@article{Zipp2006IsTA,
  title={Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony? The Political Orientations and Educational Values of Professors},
  author={John F. Zipp and R. D. Fenwick},
  journal={Public Opinion Quarterly},
  year={2006},
  volume={70},
  pages={304-326}
}

• J. Zipp, R. Fenwick
• Published 21 September 2006
• Education
• Public Opinion Quarterly

In the last several years, conservatives have argued that an overwhelmingly Left and liberal faculty has taken over American colleges and universities. In particular, two main claims have been advanced: (1) a disproportionate percentage of the faculty is liberal; and (2) these liberal faculty are pushing their values on students and colleagues, skewing the educational process. However, data to support these contentions come from unrepresentative institutions and/or disciplines and mistakenly equate party identification with political ideology. In contrast, we use two nationally representative surveys done by the Carnegie Foundation (in 1989 and 1997) to address these concerns. We have several key findings: (1) although left-of-center faculty increased slightly, the best overall description of these trends suggests increased movement to the center, toward a more moderate faculty, between 1989 and 1997; (2) there are sizable differences across disciplines and institu- tional types, with conservatives being the plurality in some fields and in two-year colleges; (3) changes in age and gender have offsetting effects on changes in liberalism; and (4) there are significant differences in edu- cational values between liberal and conservative professors. In the last several years, right-wing activists and scholars, especially David Horowitz and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC) and the National Association of Scholars, have claimed that an overwhelmingly Left and liberal fac- ulty has taken over universities, imposing political correctness and suppressing dissent (e.g., Tierney 2004; Wall Street Journal 2004; Wisse 2004). The "thought police," the argument goes, have made conservative views unwelcome on campus, and college students are being exposed only to liberal and leftist perspectives.