Michael Rushton on Arm's Length

Two things. First, Michael Rushton does not think the percentage of faculty who tend to vote Republican, or who hold conservative political views (I’m guessing a higher number), or who hold conservative views regarding university curriculum (a much higher number, as attendance at any faculty meeting discussing curricular changes will confirm) is as important as some people seem to think it is. The vast majority of courses do not (and generally should not) come to involve the political preferences of faculty, and faculty should rightly be disciplined if they spend their time in a course on the nineteenth-century Russian novel constantly airing their latest grievances against current administration policy (this is not to say it would be wrong for a professor in a class, say, on International Trade to question the efficacy of the current administration’s policies). There are many pressing issues facing the academy - I do not put the distribution of political leanings near the top of that list. But, for the sake of argument, suppose it really did matter. Well, given the slowness in changing the composition of faculty through hiring practices - that would take decades of retirements and new hires - the fastest way to make change would be to change the political preferences of at least some of the existing faculty. So, a proposal. Let’s take a leader in Republican circles - J.D. Vance might be someone appropriate for this. Let him embark on a series of campus visits, addressing faculty groups. He could begin: “Yes, I know I have said in speeches that professors, i.e. you, are the enemy. Our government has, through cuts and freezing of funds to the NSF and NIH, caused tremendous disruption and uncertainty to your long term research projects. We have upended the system of student visas, in one case at least trying to prevent a university from enrolling any foreign graduate students at all. We appointed, with Republican-led Senate confirmation, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. But I’m going to ask you to look past these things, as I try to persuade you that, even if you have not previously voted for Republicans, now is the time. …”