Comments on: Affirmative Action for Campus Conservatives: A Modest Proposal

By: Crooked Timber » » Conservative Affirmative Action Again

Crooked Timber » » Conservative Affirmative Action Again — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:08:59 +0000

[...] But then I would say that, wouldn’t I. Entertaining as it is to see something like my April 1 ‘modest proposal’ recycled as a quasi-serious plan of action, it can’t compete with Chris’s experience last year, of being (perhaps unintentionally) directly plagiarized by William Gibson. Now that’s real geek street-cred. posted on Monday, October 24th, 2005 at 2:07 pm Post a comment [...]

By: Yevgeny Vilensky

Yevgeny Vilensky — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 05:02:00 +0000

Whoever made that idiotic jab at Paul Wolfowitz really needs to get his facts straight. Wolfowitz was Dean of the School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins (probably one of the top three schools in the field… along with Fletcher at Tufts and Walsh at Georgetown) before his career in government. The man is a distinguished academic. Bringing up the sceptre of evil Wolfie isn’t really going to cut it. Sheesh.

By: paul

paul — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 03:20:46 +0000

Per yoshie, is the perceived imbalance in academia bias or self-selection?

And why do people choose the life of the mind, with the attendant low-rent wages for the body? I spent most of a year working as administrative staff in a large law school and I heard an awful lot of whinging about pay. At the same time, I didn’t notice any crowds of angry villagers gathering to deal with any heretical faculty members. So I’m guessing no one was laying out any provocative theories. Is tenure the reason people go that route?

So what is tenure—seen by many as a sinecure, rather than a privilege—really worth? How much more does academic tenure protect unpopular speech that the First Amendment?

By: Yoshie

Yoshie — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 00:46:05 +0000

Are there fewer conservatives in academia than there ought to be? A new study that suggests that is making a splash in the corporate media: Stanley Rothman, S. Robert Lichter, and Neil Nevitte, “Politics and Professional Advancement among College Faculty,” The Forum 3.1 (2005).

While Rothman, Lichter, and Nevitte’s research overstates the political gap between liberals and conservatives in academia today, it is true that liberals traditionally outnumber conservatives in the humanities and social sciences, particularly at research institutions that require a doctoral degree as a condition of employment. What should be conservatives’ response to that? I submit that conservatives ought to congratulate themselves. Thinking like the proverbial Rational Economic Man weighing opportunity costs and maximizing utility, many conservatives made the economically correct choice of staying out of Ph.D. programs, especially academic sweatshops in the humanities and social sciences.

Liberals and leftists, on the other hand, should proffer a left-wing remedy that addresses a right-wing grievance while solving at least some of the many problems that plague the life of mind: increase tenure-track jobs massively, and raise faculty salaries as well as teaching assistant wages dramatically, in order to make academic compensation packages competitive with what plastic surgeons, corporate lawyers, business executives, and politicians turned lobbyists would expect. In short, give conservatives what they do not have today: financial incentives to become academics. Turn the ivory tower into a field of conservative dreams of big money: if you build it, they will come.

By: Barry Freed

Barry Freed — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 20:14:46 +0000

Seth – I reckon there’s a reality tv show in this. As long as we can work in Paris Hilton somehow.

If you can work in Paris Hilton I can practically guarantee you a sizeable portion of the “distance education” market.

By: asg

asg — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 17:59:25 +0000

This post is really interesting because it just shows how differently people can see the same things. On NRO’s Corner blog, they just spent two weeks tearing one another to pieces over the Schiavo thing – sure, there were more pro-tubers than anti-tubers but there was genuine debate going on there. (It certainly contrasted with the level of debate on that issue that occurred here!) AEI just released a big study questioning some of the underpinnings of the drug war. Very little would seem more obvious to me than the existence of lively debate within the right side of the political sphere.

I guess this is just a pitfall of relying on the testimony of one disaffected guy.

By: J.

J. — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 17:06:58 +0000

Honestly, what kind of academic brilliance could we expect from educated, middle-class men afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs?

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 16:52:54 +0000

“The wheel will turn, and when it does expect that we’ll treat the conservatives exactly the same way that they’re treating us.”

Oh, you already do.
Bushitler was predated by Reagan = Hitler by what 20-24 years (and I’m sure Nixon=Hitler 20 years before that)?

Its your worst nightmare, isn’t it. The masses of suburbanites are as aggressive and politically active as bored suburban hippies have been since the 1960’s. You clowns have been saying for 40 years that politics is everything. What’s wrong; are we making the mistake of taking you seriously?

Steve

By: Dan Simon

Dan Simon — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 16:04:50 +0000

Let them start their own universities.

Careful what you wish for. Ever heard of Fox News?

By: des von bladet

des von bladet — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 15:45:19 +0000

As a fledgeling post-Althusserian Marxiste, I bitterly resent the suggestion that the Right has any advantage in “spleen, orneriness and gouty irritation”.

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 15:31:46 +0000

The hostility towards intellectualism in the last post is the basic reason why reactionaries like Steve aren’t more common in academe. Rest assured Steve – the contempt is mutual. The wheel will turn, and when it does expect that we’ll treat the conservatives exactly the same way that they’re treating us. No respect for your values or opinions, and none of the brakes on majority rule that you and your ilk have worked so hard to dismantle.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 13:37:08 +0000

What is the prevailing attitude towards cloning amongst plumbers? Who gives a rat’s ass?

We are finally coming to realize that political attitudes amongst professors are about as significant as political attitudes amongst plumbers. Universities are little more than expensive social clubs for society’s misfits. And its not so bad-if liberals weren’t all penned up in universities where nobody listens to them (least of all their students), they might actually matter.

The one flaw to this is that one group in our society does listen to them; the judiciary. But don’t worry; Bush still has his second term to take care of that.

Steve

By: Brett Bellmore

Brett Bellmore — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 13:26:08 +0000

“There are plenty of conservatives in academia as it exists,”

In the sense that they wouldn’t all fit in one telephone booth, yes, there are plenty.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 12:35:41 +0000

Really, why then isn’t Victor Davis Hansen a leading unorthodox conservative. I mean look how tenor has made Glen Reynolds flee the the fold of orthodoxy, right?

By: buermann

buermann — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 08:57:06 +0000

There are plenty of conservatives in academia as it exists, and they’re pretty thoroughly ignored by the ‘conservative movement’ unless they’re towing the party line. Or you’re trying to convince prominent conservatives that do tow said line to take a pay cut and get a real job.