however, this is a tragic situation

>From this morning's New York Times, this is an interesting observation about campus politics and the employment outlook for students are somewhat to the right of their professors (i.e., almost everyone) should they be looking to careers in academia.

I thought of De-Daumier Smith ("the worst that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly") and of more political considerations, which suggest the conclusion that there are things far worse.

luke

- - - - -

Lonely Campus Voices

September 27, 2003
 By DAVID BROOKS

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."
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Sat Sep 27 07:21:01 2003