Leftists squelch any university diversity

After the Berlin Wall came down, somebody quipped, "there are but four strongholds of Marxism left now ... China, Cuba, North Korea, and the American university."

Recent events at the Santa Rosa Junior College lend credibility to this statement.

Molly McPherson and her JC Republican Club should be congratulated for having the courage to go public with their charges of communist indoctrination by left-leaning professors.

Members of the English department were outraged and demand ed an apology. They wrote in a recent commentary published in The Press Democrat, "conservative teachers have conservative points of view and liberal teachers have liberal points of view ...". But they fail to point out how few conservative college professors there are.

Actually this is nothing new.

Past surveys show that often 85 percent or more or university faculty members are Democrats. Those few Republicans who slip through the screening process keep their mouths shut or pay a dear price for their candor.

Conservative students often face the same problem.

Diversity is supposed to characterize our universities. In reali ty, they are virtually one-party states, ideological monopolies, and they look little like America when it comes to cultural and political ideas.

A 1975 definitive study of politics among college professors was conducted by two highly regarded political scientists, Everett Ladd, Jr. and Seymour Lipsett. Over 100 colleges and universities were selected at random to participate. More than 4,000 prof essors participated, and over 50 percent of those polled responded.

The findings, even 30 years ago, tell the tale. Only 12 percent were Republican. These molders of young minds represent a strong force of liberal domestic, pacifist and anti-military policies. They reflect the far left in a broad range of economic and social issues.

New studies have shown a continuing increase in the swing to the far left by academe. A recent survey of 1,000 professors found seven times more Democrats than Republicans in the social sciences and humanities.

Another recent study at Cal Berkeley and Stanford found engineering and hard sciences with a ratio of 9 Democrats to 1 Republican. There were six Republicans to 183 Democrats among younger professors.

George Lakoff, a Berkeley academic, says the reason for the disparity is that liberals are more interested in the public good and social justice than conservatives.

There is some truth to that allegation, but does it justify tuning out other points of view, or denying tenure to known Republican professors? Does it justify the overwhelming political correctness on campus which makes a mockery of fairness and common sense? David Horowitz, ex-communist radical of the '60s says, "Higher education is a nightmare. The university is politicized beyond belief."

Not only do leftists have tenure, but they hire only those people with their politics. As a result, conservatives virtually have been driven out of the university. The left, meanwhile, has redefined the university to legitimate indoctrination in the classroom. In the 1950s, university administrators would say the mission was the disinterested pursuit of knowledge. Today, they would call the university an agency of social change.

One can only hope that this incident at the JC was widely publicized. Parents should be made aware that they are often paying to have their youngsters indoctrinated in an ideology contrary to their own, and inimical to the American way of life. This is a perfect formula for a socialist or Marxist America.

Sadly, too many people tend to be complacent to the point of apathy. This, coupled with the lack of accountability , tenure and union power in higher education makes faculty bias a daunting problem to solve.