Tucson Region

Bias in academia

The UA's College Republicans exhausted the political-science department, searching all the way to the astronomy department to find a faculty adviser who sided with them politically. Similarly, the UA chapter of the conservative Federalist Society had to look outside the law school to find an agreeable professor to serve as an adviser. For some, this is evidence of a liberal tilt among the faculty. But others contend the full spectrum of ideas and ideologies is found on campus. Nationally, such debate has made it to Congress, where a resolution urging public universities to adopt an "academic bill of rights" was introduced by Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., to protect students from "one-sided liberal propaganda." Arizona's Rep. J.D. Hayworth is one of 36 co-sponsors. University of Arizona professors on both the left and the right call such legislative efforts a threat to academic freedom and scholarship. The conservative movement seeks to preclude politics from hiring and tenure procedures, to ensure a professor's political bias is kept out of the classroom - or matched with dissenting views - and to protect students with contrary views from poor grades or intimidation and hostility. The author of the bill is David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, who has studied political bias in the hiring of professors. Critics include the American Association of University Professors, which says universities already support intellectual diversity. The measure is stalled in Congress but sparking debate on campuses and in recent articles in The Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education. "Among quite a few of my professors there is a liberal bias, but most of the time it doesn't affect their teaching performance," said Sean Small, president of UA College Republicans and a political-science and economics senior. "A lot of my professors know my viewpoints and accept them. I don't feel intimidated personally." Conservative students sometimes don't defend a conservative idea as aggressively as they would in a less liberal atmosphere, said Small, who added that he personally doesn't have any "horror stories." James Todd, senior lecturer in political science, said there do tend to be more liberal faculty members, but they have different approaches. For his first 10 years of teaching, he said, he was careful to hide his liberal views from students. "When I made the switch I made it very clear to them they're welcome to disagree and there's no penalty," Todd said. Todd, who has won the students' top teaching award, instructs 250 students a semester. Usually one or two student evaluations each term say he should keep his opinions to himself. He finds that strong conservatives enjoy the class and relish the opportunity for debate. "I may not like what they have to say, but I try to express my respect for them," he said. "That's something missing in the national debate - we don't have respect for each other." Joel Patterson, a political-science junior and self-described conservative, said he's outspoken and likes the challenge of debating in class, but doesn't worry about being graded unfairly because of his beliefs. "In general in classes the students themselves have a more liberal lean in thought. Whether they bring that from home or it's the product of liberal influence from professors, I'm not sure," Patterson said. Tom Fleming, UA senior lecturer in astronomy, is the faculty adviser for both the College Republicans and the Federalist Society. He said that, as a conservative on campus, he's used to being in the minority. Fleming said he's heard from students who fear voicing a conservative opinion in class, but he's seen the ranks of conservative students grow in the last few years. "Overall, when it comes to politics the majority of the student body is pretty apathetic. But from what I see, the student body as a whole tends to be more conservative than the faculty," he said. Fleming said he hasn't read the academic bill of rights and isn't familiar with the specifics, but is wary of attempts to control the faculty. "Having anyone come in and legislate what you do in the classroom isn't right. Every faculty member is on their honor to be open-minded and fair to their students," he said. The UA doesn't centrally track complaints or grade appeals, or categorize them by politics. But at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences - the university's largest with 7,000 students and home to most politically related disciplines - there hasn't been a single grade appeal based on political views since 1998, said James Shockey, associate dean for instruction. In that time, there have been about eight formal complaints from students who felt they had been mistreated in class based on political views. Shockey said that number was "trivial" compared with the number of students, courses and professors in the college. David Gibbs, an associate professor of history and political science, received an anonymous student evaluation in spring 2004 that called him an "anti-American communist who hates America and is trying to brainwash young people into thinking America sucks." Gibbs said, "The discussion is based on the perception that there's an overwhelming left-wing dominance on college faculties, and the perception is so wildly off base that it's difficult to characterize. "The perception is we get our money from some imaginary left-wing group, like the Revolutionary Community Party." In fact, he said, university money comes from "Pfizer, the Pentagon and the CIA," and "there's a pro-status-quo bias." In 2004, a Libertarian group named Independent Women's Forum bought an ad in the UA newspaper suggesting that most professors are Democrats who do 10 things to skew learning, such as hindering open debate and making students who disagree with them uncomfortable. Gibbs contends that it's facts, not opinions, that often rankle. "The things I present in class that are perhaps objectionable are declassified documents that discuss actions by the U.S. government that are embarrassing and possibly illegal," he said. For example, Gibbs lectures on U.S. plots to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro and other CIA covert operations. "I don't force my opinion on students. That would be absurd and very unprofessional if people did that," he said. Some professors make their slants known right at the beginning, said Christopher Dang, a political-science and sociology senior and a Democrat. "It's important to lay down your bias and explain how you got there," Dang said. "They all have something to share, and it's an important aspect of the learning process to get where their views came from."