The Blue Academy

This obscure editorial found that the ratio of Democrats to Republicans at Stanford and Berkeley was almost ten to one. Apparently other studies have found similar ratios at other top schools. I sort of suspect that Bob Jones U and some similar institutions were not included in any of the surveys, but what should we make of this? Shocking evidence of discrimination or something less sinister? I don't know the answer, and in fact have never attended either of the institutions mentioned (though I've bought books at their bookstores and a sweatshirt at Stanford).

I can imagine some fairly overt discrimination, especially in the humanities and social sciences where ideology is tightly bound up with scholarly approach and worldview, but I think there are some other things in operation too. The cornerstones of the Republican party's program, at least in the last election, were Christianity, opposition to abortion, opposition to homosexual rights and especially homosexual marriage, gun rights, and support for the war in Iraq. Stem cell research, big government, protecting the environment, and evolution by natural selection were also Republican bugaboos. It seems pretty easy to see why a lot of science types would find the last four objectionable.

The most typical Republican voter in the last election was white, rural, a strongly religious Christian, and less educated. Most of these are under-represented in academia. Typical Democratic voters were urban, more educated, less religious or not Christian, more likely to be black or Hispanic, and less likely to be a gun owner.

None of these effects seems dramatic enough to explain the 10 to 1 ratios (or slightly less in the larger study) found. That would seem to leave discrimination or my own favorite theory: Most people smart enough to become faculty at top Universities are too smart to be Republicans.

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