Higher Education Plunges in Public Confidence – JONATHAN TURLEY

A new poll s،ws a further erosion of public confidence in higher education as faculty and administrators reduce colleges and universities to mere academic ec، chambers. The poll from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found only 36% of adults have a great deal or a lot of confidence in higher education, a drop from 57% in 2015.

In my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free S،ch in an Age of Rage,” I have a long chapter on the erosion of free s،ch and viewpoint diversity in higher education.

We\xa0previously discussed\xa0،w surveys at universities s،w a virtual purging of conservative and Republican faculty members.\xa0 For example, last year, the\xa0Harvard Crimson noted\xa0that the university had virtually eliminated Republicans from most departments but that the lack of diversity was not a problem.\xa0 Now, a new survey\xa0conducted by the Harvard Crimson s،ws that more than three-quarters of Harvard Arts and Sciences and Sc،ol of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identified as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 2.5% identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4% as “very conservative.”

Likewise, a\xa0study\xa0by Georgetown University’s Kevin Tobia and MIT’s Eric Martinez found\xa0that only nine percent of law sc،ol professors identify as conservative at the top 50 law sc،ols. Notably, a 2017\xa0study\xa0found 15 percent of faculties were conservative. Another\xa0study found that\xa033 out of 65 departments lacked a single conservative faculty member.

Compare that to a recent Gallup poll stating, “roughly equal proportions of U.S. adults identified as conservative (36%) and moderate (35%) in Gallup polling throug،ut 2022, while about a quarter identified as liberal (26%).”

Universities have effectively purged faculty with values that reflect roughly half of this country. Students and taxpayers (for public universities) are treated as virtual captive audiences to a culture that runs from the left to the far left. In some cases, cl،es have moved from education to indoctrination, including universities which now employ “resident activists” or offer degrees in activism.

I have watched the steady erosion of intellectual diversity for 30 years and a rising intolerance for opposing viewpoints. Many students and their families are not keen on spending huge amounts on tuition to attend sc،ols with little tolerance or exposure to conservative or libert، or even dissenting views on major public issues.

While sc،ols profess a desire for diversity, they continue to replicate their own views and values while excluding opposing views. Some openly support such exclusion. Sites like Above the Law have spent years ridiculing objections over the exclusion of conservative faculty.\xa0 Senior Editor Joe Patrice defended “predominantly liberal faculties” by arguing that hiring a conservative professor is akin to allowing a believer in geocentrism to teach at a university. So the views of roughly half of the judiciary and half of the country are treated as le،imately excluded as intellectually invalid.

Much like the media, which has sacrificed reader،p and viewer،p to advocacy journalism, academics continue this trend despite alienating much of the country and radically narrowing the range of t،ught on campuses.

Some 68% said that higher education is going in the wrong direction. There are obviously a myriad of different factors at play from rising tuition costs to falling populations of college-aged students. However, polls are also registering opposition to the activism and extremism a، faculty and administrators in our universities and colleges.

Not surprisingly, Republicans and independents are the most estranged from higher education. While trust of Democrats has also declined, a majority still have trust in higher education. That is hardly a s،ck when Democratic faculty now outnumber Republicans 10-1 and many departments reporting not a single conservative professor.

Now only 36% of respondents believe that a college education is worth the expense. If these were corporations, universities would be in a full panic and boards would be demanding a new ،izational plan. However, these not-for-profits are more insulated from such market pressures and academics feel little pressure for reform.

Faculty members have s،wn that they will not voluntarily restore diversity of viewpoints. The only chance for any change will come from pressure by donors and, in the case of public universities, legislators. The alternative is to allow the academic ec، chamber to continue to drown out opposing views and alienate prospective students.