Mitchell Langbert writes for the Martin Center about the academy’s left-leaning political views.
In a year when numerous faculty members who aren’t “woke” have been pilloried, and many universities are revamping themselves in accordance with the agenda of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, I was amazed to read an article by Harvard history professor Naomi Oreskes and her student, Charlie Tyson, who claim that research findings that university professors overwhelmingly lean to the left are wrong.
Oreskes and Tyson published “Is Academe Awash in Liberal Bias?” in the Chronicle of Higher Education on September 14. Their piece violates common sense and misconstrues basic statistical reasoning.
Left-wing bias pervades higher education, and since the COVID-19 lockdowns, colleges have carried left-wing bias to greater extremes than ever. At Brooklyn College (a part of the City University of New York), where I work, a faculty group called “Rank and File Action” just emailed a university-wide invitation to an event featuring the Marxist Democratic Socialists of America chapter at LaGuardia Community College. RFA describes itself as “a group of militant rank & file activists at CUNY challenging the culture of austerity in higher education and demanding a more democratic fighting union.”
Is there any counterweight to RFA? Of course not.
Since June 1, I have received 11 emails concerning identity and racial politics from CUNY’s chancellor, the president of Brooklyn College, and the college’s chief diversity officer. …
… As I see things, my own institutions certainly are awash in leftist bias.
Not satisfied with political advocacy, higher education institutions have recently escalated personal attacks on conservatives. …
… Oreskes and Tyson rely on data showing that 46 percent of professors say that they are moderate. …
… As well, there is reason to be suspicious of the meaning ascribed to “moderate.” There are biases such as referent bias (everyone I know votes for Bernie Sanders, so I am moderate because I vote for Sanders too). …