Are Colleges Too Liberal?

Filed Under Politics |

by Joseph N. Abraham, M.D.

In the interest of full honesty, I need to point out that I am generally (but not always) left-of-center. Despite that, I don’t much care for liberal writers. On the other hand, conservative George F. Will is a writer I will generally read, even though he and I often do not see eye to eye.

Fact is, I like Will’s logic and deliberative style, even though I don’t always agree with his starting points. Regardless of how I feel about his conclusions, there is a rational consistency there.

But more important to me, George is an independent thinker. He is unafraid of disagreeing with other conservatives, and he will criticize elected conservatives. This independence is sorely lacking in the world, although it is very much needed. I mistrust anyone who always agrees with their party, regardless of their political stance.

But currently Mr. Will is contending that our colleges and universities are dominated by liberals, and that this is cause for alarm. I must take exception to his comments.

Consider that the branches of the US Armed Forces comprise a larger share of the US budget than any other office; add in Veterans Affairs, and it is even larger. Well, the Military, and perhaps as significantly, the many industries who support and earn a living from those Military dollars, are dominated by conservatives. Why isn’t that a problem?

Large corporate interests now influence our private time, by constantly advertising their services and products to us. Most of the entertainment and news outlets are now also owned by large business, and critics constantly decry the loss of independence in news. Big businesses are run and staffed by people who, not surprisingly, are almost all conservative. So here is an enormous educational counterbalance to our colleges, and one that influences us from cradle to grave, not just for 4 years. But there is no outcry about that.

And our Churches, which ostensibly are our moral guides, are increasingly moving to the right. Evangelical churches, the fastest growing part of Christendom, overwhelmingly vote with conservative candidates. But Will doesn’t worry about those.

So my first question is, does George F. Will fret that some critical aspect of our country is too partisan? Or is his concern simply that it isn’t his party?

Next, there is a matter of critical thinking, which is essential not only to democracy, but also to free will, which is essential to religious doctrine. If we only expose our young people to one aspect of human political thought, only indoctrinate them in the ideology of one party, then we cannot say that we have faithfully discharged our obligations to our country, nor to our religions.

Consider the implications. If as I have contended, the bulk of private life is dominated by conservative corporate messages, when will young adults have the opportunity to hear other viewpoints? If we believe that our young people need to consider all viewpoints– and we do, in our deepest American and religious convictions– if our universities don’t play Devil’s Advocate, who will?

Certainly Mr. Will is supportive of Providential free will, and the unfettered flow of ideas in a democracy.

It would be hard to argue that this liberal collegiate exposure has been detrimental to the conservative movement. To the contrary: despite many decades of dominance by liberal thinkers in our citadels of learning, in the past decade we elected the first unipartisan government since WW II– and it was conservative. This strongly suggests that neither the corporation nor the university dominate the mind of the citizen; her mind is her own. The citizen is exposed to diverse viewpoints, and this exposure strengthens the democracy, rather than weakens it.

Last, we need to consider what a university is for. If, as the name suggests, conservatives ‘conserve’– i.e., defend the traditional– then obviously, our universities need to be liberal. Our universities are our primary institutions of research, which means that one of their primary missions is precisely to question the traditional, to examine what is currently believed. If progress is a matter of constantly questioning the accepted and the obvious, then to be effective, our universities will always place themselves in opposition to conserved ideas.

Of course higher education is liberal. That is its job.

So with all due respect to Mr. Will, I would hope that he stops criticizing our universities for being liberal. If they were not liberal, they– and we– would not be doing our jobs.

About the Author:

Joseph N. Abraham, MD is the president and founder of booksXYZ.com, the NPO bookstore supporting education, and listing over 2,000,000 books. He is also author of Happiness: A Physician Biologist Looks at Life, a synthesis of biology, Zen and medicine.