George Leef, of The John William Pope Center for Higher Academic Policy, reports that the reason there are not more conservatives in academia may be more simple than we've been led to believe:

The old arguments about why there are so few conservative college professors got a new twist recently. Neil Gross, professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia and Ethan Fosse, a doctoral student at Harvard, argued in a paper (available on Professor Gross’ website) that the key reason why few conservatives go into the teaching profession is that the stereotype of the job of a professor just doesn’t fit the image they have of themselves. Just as few men want to go into nursing because it’s viewed as a woman’s occupation, so do few conservatives want to go into the professiorate because it’s viewed as a liberal’s occupation.

The Pope Center asked a number of professors known to be conservative or libertarian in outlook to comment on the Gross/Fosse thesis. Here are their replies....Continue reading Why Are Conservatives Rare on College Faculties? >>