American Colleges Under the Microscope
PLUS: A new Connors Institute partnership with the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University
Before we get to the podcast episode, a quick announcement. On the heels of announcing our partnership with Ad Fontes Media, the Connors Institute is excited to announce another great partnership: The Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University! This partnership will provide Connors researchers opportunities to collaborate and share resources and knowledge with an organization doing important work in the information literacy space.
American Colleges at the Crossroads
On this episode of the Utterly Moderate Podcast we discuss recent controversies at and concerns about colleges and universities in the United States—from highly publicized instances of campus unrest to a lack of intellectual diversity among faculty to hypocrisy on free speech.
As an important example, take the liberal-to-conservative imbalance among college faculty members. The ratio of Democrats to Republicans in disciplines like math and chemistry has been reported to be around 5:1, while estimates are much higher in the social sciences and humanities. In the field of psychology the ratio was estimated to be as low as 2:1 earlier in the 20th century but around 17:1 in recent years (and even worse at more prestigious universities and in New England). In sociology, one estimate puts the ratio at 40:1. The imbalance is likely worse at elite institutions, as Jonathan Rauch explains:
“A recent study of top-ranked liberal-arts colleges by the National Association of Scholars found that 39% had zero Republican professors, and that almost 80% of the academic departments had ‘either zero Republicans, or so few as to make no difference.’”
This podcast episode’s guest is Jacob Mackey, associate professor at Occidental College and coeditor with host Lawrence M. Eppard of The Poisoning of the American Mind, which is due out later this spring.
The Connors Institute Has Been Busy!
Check out two reports that were recently released from the Connors Institute, the “Connors Institute Media Report Card” and “Place Matters.”
In the media report card Connors researchers take a rigorous look at numerous news and information sources in the U.S. and evaluate their bias and accuracy. Check it out yourself to see which outlets made the grade and which ones missed the mark.
In “Place Matters” Connors researchers examine the impact of neighborhoods and communities on American children’s chances of success. The efforts and choices of the individual children themselves of course matter for their success, as do the efforts and resources of their families. But this research shows that the neighborhoods and communities where children are raised matter a great deal for their success as well—take a look at the report yourself and also take some time to examine your own neighborhood!
New Outrage Overload Episode
In this episode, we sit down with renowned political scientist Professor Kevin Smith, Chair and Political Science Professor at the University of Nebraska. He has authored or co-authored ten books and more than 50 research articles that have appeared in political science, psychology, biology, and general science journals. He discusses the challenges our democracy faces and the solutions we hold within ourselves.