The New York Times
September 27, 2003
Lonely Campus Voices
By DAVID BROOKS
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/27/opinion/27BROO.html
Most good universities have at least one conservative professor on campus.
When, for example, some group at Harvard wants to hold a panel discussion on
some political matter, it can bring out the political theorist Harvey
Mansfield to hold up the rightward end. At Princeton it's Robert George. At
Yale it's Donald Kagan.
These dissenters lead interesting lives. But there's one circumstance that
causes true anguish: when a bright conservative student comes to them and
says he or she is thinking about pursuing an academic career in the
humanities or social sciences.
"This is one of the most difficult things," says Alan Kors, a rare
conservative at Penn. "One is desperate to see people of independent mind
willing to enter the academic world. On the other hand, it is simply the
case they will be entering hostile and discriminatory territory."
"Here's what I'm thinking when an outstanding kid comes in," says George, of
Princeton. "If the kid applies to one of the top graduate schools, he's
likely to be not admitted. Say he gets past that first screen. He's going to
face pressure to conform, or he'll be the victim of discrimination. It's a
lot harder to hide then than it was as an undergrad.
"But say he gets through. He's going to run into intense discrimination
trying to find a job. But say he lands a tenure-track job. He'll run into
even more intense discrimination because the establishment gets more
concerned the closer you get to the golden ring. By the time you come up for
tenure, you're in your mid-30's with a spouse and a couple of kids. It's the
worst time to be uncertain about your career. Can I really take the
responsibility of advising a kid to take these kinds of risks?"
The most common advice conservative students get is to keep their views in
the closet. Will Inboden was working on a master's degree in U.S. history at
Yale when a liberal professor pulled him aside after class and said: "You're
one of the best students I've got, and you could have an outstanding career.
But I have to caution you: hiring committees are loath to hire political
conservatives. You've got to be really quiet."
Conservative professors emphasize that most discrimination is not conscious.
A person who voted for President Bush may be viewed as an oddity, but the
main problem in finding a job is that the sorts of subjects a conservative
is likely to investigate — say, diplomatic or military history — do not
excite hiring committees. Professors are interested in the subjects they are
already pursuing, and in a horrible job market it is easy to toss out
applications from people who are doing something different.
As a result, faculties skew overwhelmingly to the left. Students often have
no contact with adult conservatives, and many develop cartoonish impressions
of how 40 percent of the country thinks. Hundreds of conservatives with
Ph.D.'s end up working in Republican administrations, in think tanks and at
magazines, often with some regrets. "Teaching is this really splendid thing.
It would be great to teach Plato's `Republic,' " says Gary Rosen, a Harvard
Ph.D. who works at Commentary magazine.
Despite all this, George advises his best and toughest students to go ahead.
"We need to send our best soldiers into battle, even though we're going to
lose a few," he says. "I hate to tell kids they shouldn't take risks, they
shouldn't go for their dreams."
Others say it is possible to have a satisfying career and do good work if
you learn not to fly straight into the prevailing ideology. "Conservatives
are people who teach the value of prudence but are incapable of exercising
any," says Mark Lilla, a politically unclassifiable professor at the
University of Chicago.
And Jacob T. Levy, a libertarian also at Chicago, says some conservatives
exaggerate the level of hostility they face. Some politicized humanities
departments may be closed to them, he concedes, but professors in other
fields are open to argument.
If it were my kid, I'd say go to graduate school — read the books you want
to read. Then go to Washington, where you won't feel embattled because
you'll exchange ideas with liberals and others in a more intellectually
diverse setting. You'll probably end up doing more good.
Last week the professors at Harvard's government department reviewed the
placement records of last year's doctoral students. Two had not been able to
find academic jobs, both of them Mansfield's students. "Well," Mansfield
quipped, "I guess they'll have to go to Washington and run the country."
September 27, 2003
Lonely Campus Voices
By DAVID BROOKS
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/27/opinion/27BROO.html
Most good universities have at least one conservative professor on campus.
When, for example, some group at Harvard wants to hold a panel discussion on
some political matter, it can bring out the political theorist Harvey
Mansfield to hold up the rightward end. At Princeton it's Robert George. At
Yale it's Donald Kagan.
These dissenters lead interesting lives. But there's one circumstance that
causes true anguish: when a bright conservative student comes to them and
says he or she is thinking about pursuing an academic career in the
humanities or social sciences.
"This is one of the most difficult things," says Alan Kors, a rare
conservative at Penn. "One is desperate to see people of independent mind
willing to enter the academic world. On the other hand, it is simply the
case they will be entering hostile and discriminatory territory."
"Here's what I'm thinking when an outstanding kid comes in," says George, of
Princeton. "If the kid applies to one of the top graduate schools, he's
likely to be not admitted. Say he gets past that first screen. He's going to
face pressure to conform, or he'll be the victim of discrimination. It's a
lot harder to hide then than it was as an undergrad.
"But say he gets through. He's going to run into intense discrimination
trying to find a job. But say he lands a tenure-track job. He'll run into
even more intense discrimination because the establishment gets more
concerned the closer you get to the golden ring. By the time you come up for
tenure, you're in your mid-30's with a spouse and a couple of kids. It's the
worst time to be uncertain about your career. Can I really take the
responsibility of advising a kid to take these kinds of risks?"
The most common advice conservative students get is to keep their views in
the closet. Will Inboden was working on a master's degree in U.S. history at
Yale when a liberal professor pulled him aside after class and said: "You're
one of the best students I've got, and you could have an outstanding career.
But I have to caution you: hiring committees are loath to hire political
conservatives. You've got to be really quiet."
Conservative professors emphasize that most discrimination is not conscious.
A person who voted for President Bush may be viewed as an oddity, but the
main problem in finding a job is that the sorts of subjects a conservative
is likely to investigate — say, diplomatic or military history — do not
excite hiring committees. Professors are interested in the subjects they are
already pursuing, and in a horrible job market it is easy to toss out
applications from people who are doing something different.
As a result, faculties skew overwhelmingly to the left. Students often have
no contact with adult conservatives, and many develop cartoonish impressions
of how 40 percent of the country thinks. Hundreds of conservatives with
Ph.D.'s end up working in Republican administrations, in think tanks and at
magazines, often with some regrets. "Teaching is this really splendid thing.
It would be great to teach Plato's `Republic,' " says Gary Rosen, a Harvard
Ph.D. who works at Commentary magazine.
Despite all this, George advises his best and toughest students to go ahead.
"We need to send our best soldiers into battle, even though we're going to
lose a few," he says. "I hate to tell kids they shouldn't take risks, they
shouldn't go for their dreams."
Others say it is possible to have a satisfying career and do good work if
you learn not to fly straight into the prevailing ideology. "Conservatives
are people who teach the value of prudence but are incapable of exercising
any," says Mark Lilla, a politically unclassifiable professor at the
University of Chicago.
And Jacob T. Levy, a libertarian also at Chicago, says some conservatives
exaggerate the level of hostility they face. Some politicized humanities
departments may be closed to them, he concedes, but professors in other
fields are open to argument.
If it were my kid, I'd say go to graduate school — read the books you want
to read. Then go to Washington, where you won't feel embattled because
you'll exchange ideas with liberals and others in a more intellectually
diverse setting. You'll probably end up doing more good.
Last week the professors at Harvard's government department reviewed the
placement records of last year's doctoral students. Two had not been able to
find academic jobs, both of them Mansfield's students. "Well," Mansfield
quipped, "I guess they'll have to go to Washington and run the country."
