Julia Slater headshot
For decades, a faction of conservatism has forcefully peddled the idea that students on college campuses across the country are being subjected to left-wing indoctrination. In July, former President Donald Trump himself took to Twitter and threatened to take away the tax-exempt status of universities that push “radical left indoctrination.” Everything from right-wing radio to conservative social media figures to Fox News employ this narrative of university brainwashing. In some versions of this myth, it’s undercover Marxists indoctrinating America’s youth, while others feature plain old liberals. Luckily for those who are concerned, these narratives are objectively false.
Conservative criticisms of campus politics run the gamut; they include complaints that college environments are hostile to conservatives, concerns about liberal ideological homogeneity and nuanced outcries of “socialism bad.” While valid conservative criticism of college campuses likely exists, many studies ultimately show that claims of leftist indoctrination on college campuses are unfounded. With this in mind, these attacks on institutions of higher education seem more like flat out anti-intellectualism rather than “good faith” concern.
Conservatives are correct that professors are a left-leaning group. However, the data that is often cited by conservatives to demonstrate that colleges are overrun by liberal professors focuses on elite Northeastern institutions and humanities and social sciences departments — all of which lean left far more aggressively than other institutions and departments do.
Data from a comprehensive, nationally representative study shows instead that while 44% of professors described themselves as either “liberal” or “extremely liberal,” 46% used more centrist terms to describe themselves. The most leftward descriptor, “extremely liberal,” was only used by 9% of professors. Studies also show wide variation in ideological makeup between departments. Ultimately, professors’ politics are largely representative of the politics of highly-educated people.
Conservatives will sometimes argue that the relatively low numbers of conservative professors on campuses proves bias against conservatives in academics. However, studies have found no significant evidence of bias. Rather, researchers believe self-selection is at work. Conservatives show less desire to go to graduate school or get a Ph.D. and are more likely to pursue professional rather than academic-oriented majors, regardless of aptitude.
Is an ideologically off-balance professorship inherently a problem? Right-wing media certainly wants Americans to think so. However, just because there’s an abundance of liberal professors — and yes, maybe a socialist here and there — on campuses does not mean that professors are influencing students’ politics.
Despite this narrative of indoctrination, colleges aren’t accepting conservative and moderate freshmen students and churning out leftist radicals after four years. This is because the political views of students are largely formed before college and have little malleability. In fact, researchers from NC State helped conduct a study which showed there is minimal movement in political leaning from freshman to senior year.
On top of that, most academic fields are not ideologically oriented. Gravity is still the same to a liberal physics professor as it is to a conservative one. A foreign language is spoken the same no matter political orientation. Even in fields that are more ideologically oriented, such as political science or sociology, students are deft at identifying the political inclinations of professors and remaining appropriately skeptical. As a political science major, this has largely been my experience. On the other hand, I’ve also had professors argue both sides of an issue so forcefully that I truly had a difficult time finding any traces of their personal beliefs on the matter anywhere in their instruction. I find this equally commendable.
As long as professors welcome open and civilized debate when appropriate, are fair, ground their instruction and any political positions they articulate in an evidence-based manner and actively work to keep bias from tainting empirical research, the political positions of professors do no harm. Claims of “leftist groupthink,” radical left indoctrination or “post-modern neo-Marxist” brainwashing — whatever that means — are entirely unsubstantiated. Rather, this narrative of the rabidly liberal college professor is just another iteration of the decades-long conservative effort to discredit informative institutions.