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Concerns about free-speech suppression on campus shouldnt be dismissed out of hand, and liberals should speak out against any excesses within their ranks at colleges and universities. Yet the conservative medias incessant coverage of these controversies undoubtedly inflates their significance, suggesting a systemic problem in higher education that doesnt exist. But the belief that it exists, though largely confined to the right, has consequences for us all.

The conservative narrative about colleges and universities has several common complaints: Theyre inhospitable to conservatives. Liberal professors indoctrinate their students. And left-wing students have become snowflakesbut also militant social justice warriors. In every instance, the evidence against these claims is stronger than the evidence for them.

On the question of liberal professors indoctrinating their students, the consensus is clear. Yes, professors lean left (although with some caveats), Inside Higher Eds Scott Jaschik wrote in February. But much of the research says conservative students and faculty members are not only surviving but thriving in academefree of indoctrination if not the periodic frustrations. Further, the research casts doubt on the idea that the ideological tilt of faculty members is because of discrimination. Notably, some of this research has been produced by conservative scholars.

One such example is last years Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University, written by Jon Shields, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, and Joshua Dunn, a political science professor at the University of Colorado. As two conservative professors, they wrote in The Washington Post, we agree that right-wing faculty members and ideas are not always treated fairly on college campuses. But we also know that right-wing hand-wringing about higher education is overblown.

Dunn told me he thinks conservative students do face social pressure from their liberal peers. For your average conservative student going about their daily life, he said, my guess is that politics isnt going to come up that often for them, if only because they often choose majors in the hard sciences or in business. He argued the issue is much more salient for sociology or political science majors. At the same time, he cautioned, One thing I think happens is that conservative students go into college expecting the worst. Its just not a healthy attitude in general.

Dunn hopes that schools will take this opportunity to promote intellectual diversity and civil discourse, and that campus conservatives, instead of inviting right-wing provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos, will bring in more speakers like Princetown professor Robert George, who has joined with Cornel West in promoting healthy debate. I do think that conservative media could help. Of course, its not terribly newsworthy if a speaker comes to campus, gives a talk, people ask pointed but polite questions, and then everyone goes home without a YouTube-worthy video being captured, he told me. People smashing windows makes for better television than an egghead in a frumpy suit giving a talk. But they could do things that highlight how individuals that strongly disagree with one another can nevertheless work to promote civil discourse and even friendship across ideological lines.

Woessner worries about a lack of ideological diversity among faculty, and he is troubled by what he sees as attempts to suppress speakers with alternative points of view. It borders on fascism when we try to use physical threats or attempt to disrupt people from having a conservation that may be unpopular, he said. And yet, he stresses that part of succeeding in higher education is not having a victim mentality, and the right shouldnt create a self-fulfilling prophecy about being discriminated against on campus. The more conservatives overplay the narrative that theyre being persecuted and oppressed, the more they will check out of higher education, and that makes the imbalance worse, he said. I think conservatives have more to gain from higher education than liberals do. Liberals dont have their ideas challenged as often, and that makes it harder for them to grow intellectually.

Kelly-Woessner says liberals need to make changes, too. She said her research shows this generation of young people is more politically intolerant than previous cohorts. At the same time, she said, its a few instances that get blown up and then represent what colleges and universities look like. She notes that campuses dont get media coverage when host conservative speakers without controversy. We dont have the same visceral reaction to conservatives on campus, she said of Elizabethtown. In fact, weve had quite a few on campus, and nothing ever happened.... Of course were going to have slanted perspective on the magnitude of the problem, because nobody reports on the dog that doesnt bark.

The conservative media has painted a distorted portrait of academia, and their customers apparently are adjusting their opinions accordingly. But even if the decline in Republicans regard for higher education is largely attributable to right-wing hysteria and hyperbole, liberals cant afford to ignore it. The Pew poll has serious implications, for instance, for the funding and independence of public colleges and universities, which is increasingly under attack by Republicans. Consider Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and North Carolina Governor Pat McCrorys respective wars on public education in their states. Low public opinion of colleges and universities will only embolden more Republican governors to do the sameand to provide them cover when they do.

The GOPs newfound negativity about academia, Woessner told me, erodes the public support of higher education in state legislatures. If conservatives have a false impression of the state of higher education, and they believe in the open persecution of conservatives, there will be less support for the public financing of higher education. That hurts professors and students of all political stripes.

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Liberals Can't Ignore the Right's Hatred for Academia | New Republic - New Republic