<p>One of the interesting things to me in the article was the geographic information at the bottom of the article. </p>
<p>Folks in the South (49%) and West (46%) have greater conviction than the Northeast (29%) and the Midwest (27%) in their belief that college professors OFTEN use their classrooms as a platform for their personal politics. </p>
<p>However, the numbers for each region are almost identical when you expand the frequency to OFTEN/SOMETIMES with the following results: South (79%), West (78%), Northeast (78%), Midwest (74%). </p>
<p>I think that this reflects a broad consensus that there is some level of political ideology being presented in many college classrooms and, given the voter registration and giving data, I think it’s a safe bet that the information being presented supports/reinforces the liberal/Democrat perspective.</p>
<p>There are two different ideas here–what people THINK is happening, and what IS happening. People THINK that politics are being expressed in the classroom. Especially people who aren’t involved with academe at all.</p>
<p>You second statement suggests that their perception is reality. I am not sure we know that. </p>
<p>Is it true that most professors lean left? Yes. Is it therefore true that IF faculty express views, they’re more likely to be left-leaning views? Yes. Does the fact that some people worry about it means that it must be happening a LOT? That’s where you lose me.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, would presenting research and analysis that document the fact that Columbus’s voyages were a destructive force for indigenous North Americans construe a “liberal/Democrat perspective”?</p>
<p>I hear all of this talk of “liberal/Democrat perspective”, but I know that in my classrooms all I received was a reality-based perspective. </p>
<p>I would also love to hear how faculty in the fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences can present material that reflects a particular political perspective.</p>