<p>Statistics showing that political leanings of students only become slightly more liberal during college does not in any way prove that liberal bias of college faculty has no harmful effects.</p>
<p>If a student takes a course from a faculty member who refuses to hear opposing arguments or who publicly ridicules and/or reduces grades for a student presenting opposing arguments in a paper, such a student is poorly served, independent of whether or not he changes his political leanings as a result of taking the course. Students should be encouraged to write well and thoughtfully, and they should be allowed to be honest. A student who is forced to choose between being honest and receiving a bad grade or mimicking a professor’s political bias and receiving a good grade is being poorly served. Obviously not all faculty members impose their opinions on students, and not all opinionated faculty members are liberal.</p>
<p>Nevetheless, I would not be surprised to see a student receive a poor grade in a women’s studies course for submitting a well-written paper on why he/she thought women should stay home for ten years to raise a family, or for submitting a well-written paper against affirmative action in a course on race and society. Such a student may remain conservative, but he/she has lost the opportunity of receiving appropriate feedback from a faculty member. Is it possible that one of the “Duke 88” faculty members would have reacted unfairly to a student who wrote a paper opining that the lacrosse players were being unfairly treated and that the cowardly faculty members should be fired?</p>