A recent study concluding that the political views of university professors have a minimal impact on their students’ views is drawing mixed reactions from Washington University undergraduates.
The study, involving 7,000 students at 38 universities, will be published in PS: Political Science and Politics, the journal of the American Political Science Association, next April, and comes from the book “Closed Minds? Politics and Ideology in American Universities,” by A. Lee Fritschler, Jeremy D. Mayer and Bruce L. R. Smith.
Many students at the University agree with the study and argue that a vast majority of students’ political leanings are either already determined or are influenced by factors outside of class.
“I think anybody who has met a 17- or 18-year-old knows how stubborn they can be. It’s almost insulting to say that a professor can completely change the views of his students,” junior Ben Guthorn, president of the College Democrats, said.
Junior Adina Appelbaum, co-president of the University’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institution, which formulates policy papers, believes that relatives have more influence than professors when it comes to politics.
“Parents and family are the most significant factors in individuals’ formulation of political views,” Appelbaum said. “At the college age, students have learned to selectively absorb information to further support and justify their own views, and thus are even less likely to change.”
Senior Charis Fischer, president of the College Republicans, disagrees.
“I believe most students have a quite unfixed political stance. Many consider themselves liberal seemingly by default because of the general liberal atmosphere on campus. This liberalism is simply solidified by fellow students as well as professors,” Fischer, a senior, said.
Fischer is concerned that professors tend to represent only liberal perspectives.
“I personally am not as worried about professors causing students to become more liberal, but rather the fact that many political science professors do not do an adequate job of accurately presenting the conservative position,” Fischer said. “The point is that the overwhelmingly-liberal thinking of those in academia largely goes unchallenged, which is completely contrary to the goals of a university, where critical thinking should be encouraged.”
Guthorn argued, though, that regardless of professors’ views on political issues, they take steps to avoid influencing students.
“I’ve taken many political science classes,” Guthorn said. “Every professor I have had has voraciously protected their personal political leanings.”
Appelbaum has had a similar experience.
“I have found that almost all of my professors at Wash. U. have not expressed their political point of view to their students, and have been more interested in questioning the polarization of the theories themselves than persuading students to hold certain beliefs,” Appelbaum said. “We must be extremely careful not to confuse critical thinking with indoctrination,” she said.
What concerns many is the disproportionate liberalism of academia. Although there have been efforts to alter the perceived imbalance, students at the University see a professor’s political preferences to be irrelevant so long as the professor encourages thought.
“I think [the liberalism of academia] is purely a factor of the unique, insulated role that professors have in a university setting,” Appelbaum said.
But Fischer said that that insulation is detachment from reality.
“Academia is more liberal than the rest of the population because academia is the only place where ideas do not have to actually work in order to survive,” Fischer said. “I don’t think universities should strive for balance [of political leanings of professors] per se, but I think in some cases it could be worthwhile to pursue hiring more conservative professors, simply because they would bring another perspective to campuses.”
But Guthorn thinks that political values should be irrelevant in the hiring process.
“Academia is filled with appropriately-trained professors whose political leanings are irrelevant compared to the quality of their teaching,” Guthorn said. “Professors should be hired on their merit and ability to teach their subject.”
Appelbaum looks not for diversity of political ideologies in the classroom but rather for the ability of students to understand a multiplicity of ideas.
“There is nothing more valuable than having different points of view in a university setting, and there is no better way to grow intellectually than to study the opinions that one opposes,” Appelbaum said. “Awareness and understanding of more perspectives, opposing or not opposing, can never be harmful.”
