Fear and Loathing in College Classrooms: A Survey of Political Science Department Chairs Regarding Political Bias

Some conservative critics of higher education have asserted that the current generation of American professors, especially those in the social sciences and humanities, are using their classrooms to advance a liberal political agenda. As evidence, they point to surveys of the political leanings of faculty and have accumulated examples of individual professors they allege to have made inflammatory statements veering from standards of academic objectivity and who punish undergraduates for expressing differing points of view. We surveyed political science department chairs at primarily undergraduate institutions to gather their perceptions about the scope of political bias in the classroom and the institutional procedures available to them to deal with student complaints about such practices. Our results indicate that chairs are indeed sensitive to concerns about faculty who cross the line from legitimate political expression to proselytizing in the classroom. By and large, however, they do not believe such activities are widespread and they believe that their institutions already have in place procedures that treat all parties fairly when political disagreements arise between students and faculty. The data show strong support for academic freedom across public, private, and religious institutions but reveal some differences in the social and political perspectives they promote.