[melonpapes]

Originally Posted by aperson

[citation needed]

sorry i don't have a nationwide statistic sheet to get the empirical data on campus political opinions. i'm sure we could smack down a lot of the claims in this thread with a cute lil request for more data.
However, theres information suggesting at least in the way of educators and professors, conservative professors are outnumbered 12:1.

Originally Posted by article

In all, we looked up 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic
and 314 Republican.7 The overall D:R ratio is 11.5 to 1.

Do you think many students feel safe "ruffling feathers" with those in authority with opposing viewpoints? I think most likely they will stifle their true feelings and opinions during class discussions for the sake of their education and maybe even safety and to save them from the embarrassment of being the "odd one out" in lecture hall.


Theres also this:

Originally Posted by Vox article

I once saw an adjunct not get his contract renewed after students complained that he exposed them to "offensive" texts written by Edward Said and Mark Twain. His response, that the texts were meant to be a little upsetting, only fueled the students' ire and sealed his fate. That was enough to get me to comb through my syllabi and cut out anything I could see upsetting a coddled undergrad, texts ranging from Upton Sinclair to Maureen Tkacik — and I wasn't the only one who made adjustments, either.

Originally Posted by vox article, emphasis mine

This shift in student-teacher dynamic placed many of the traditional goals of higher education — such as having students challenge their beliefs — off limits. While I used to pride myself on getting students to question themselves and engage with difficult concepts and texts, I now hesitate.

So, at least one professor has had to alter the way he exposes students to "difficult" ideas and having them rationalize their feelings on these texts and ideas themselves, for the fear that he might lose tenure or otherwise come upon negative consequence. Something tells me a lot of these ideas that are being described as "difficult" probably come from a right leaning camp.

Originally Posted by guess who baby

No one can rebut feelings, and so the only thing left to do is shut down the things that cause distress — no argument, no discussion, just hit the mute button and pretend eliminating discomfort is the same as effecting actual change.

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323...ofessor-afraid

though its not hard to look at any of the large "campus activism" movements that have sprung up in the past 8-10 years and imagine why it might be hard, scary, or risky to express these viewpoints when there are swaths of people on the other side who show no qualms in doxxing you or causing trouble with your employer or school ethics board over your opinions.


maybe we should stop treating students like customers that pay 10s of thousands of dollars per year for the right to not be offended. maybe we should fix the system where teachers are afraid to teach effectively because of fear of losing their jobs in a "brutal" job market where they can be replaced with someone who won't cause trouble hurting the feelings of the schools cash cows? but thats another thread i guess.. lol