Why Hiring Professors With Conservative Views Could Backfire on Conservatives

public hermit said:

Is hiring more conservative professors and admitting more conservative students a solution to liberal bias in American higher education?

Many people think so. The Trump administration, in threatening to cut Harvard’s federal funding, demanded that the university foster greater “viewpoint diversity,” including by recruiting faculty members and students who would restore ideological balance to campus.

But a policy of hiring professors and admitting students because they have conservative views would actually endanger the open-minded intellectual environment that proponents of viewpoint diversity say they want. By creating incentives for professors and students to have and maintain certain political positions, such a policy would discourage curiosity and reward narrowness of thought.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/opinion/viewpoint-diversity-conservatives-college.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU8.2mRP.GDFxGd3Jorw0&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Would a deliberate effort to hire professors with conservatives views backfire or create balance? The example of Robert Nozick is given in the article as an someone who had an obvious Libertarian view but was hired for intellectual rigor and not his politics. Is that a good example?

ETA: The author concedes that there is liberal bias in US universities.

Click to expand...

This is a great question. But I don't think it would backfire, because conservative (i.e., limited government, human rights, strong national defense, family, faith, etc.) are principles have made the U.S great from the start. Especially, universities in America should uphold such values, and teach students about American history, rather than those queer subjects, or social justice, gender studies, which are not helpful, as we already see the results of it in today's society. Trump doesn't do anything different, but he just restores what used to be America.

To learn how universities like Harvard got woke, it can be helpful to study the work of a socialist, Antonio Gramsci, 'Long March Through Institutions". Antonio Gramsci: the Godfather of Cultural Marxism

Gramsci was actually an interesting fellow, and is still read by poly sci people on both the Left and the Right, just like they still read Marx. Like Marx, he was a perceptive observer of the socio-economic problems of his day and also like Marx, his solution for them was unworkable. But he is credited with introducing the idea of the cultural hegemony of ideological elites, which is what we are fighting about today. I suppose that is what this thread is about, too: introducing ideological elitists from the Right into universities to counter the domination of ideological elitists of the Left. But as the OP suggests, that attempt is going to backfire, because the Right as it exists today simply hasn't got the talent. I spoke earlier of my old liberal poly sci professor. He managed to just about hold his own coming up against William Buckley when we had him on campus for a debate, but our good old prof would have cut clown acts like David Barton or Kevin Roberts to ribbons in minutes.

public hermit said:

Is hiring more conservative professors and admitting more conservative students a solution to liberal bias in American higher education?

Many people think so. The Trump administration, in threatening to cut Harvard’s federal funding, demanded that the university foster greater “viewpoint diversity,” including by recruiting faculty members and students who would restore ideological balance to campus.

But a policy of hiring professors and admitting students because they have conservative views would actually endanger the open-minded intellectual environment that proponents of viewpoint diversity say they want. By creating incentives for professors and students to have and maintain certain political positions, such a policy would discourage curiosity and reward narrowness of thought.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/opinion/viewpoint-diversity-conservatives-college.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU8.2mRP.GDFxGd3Jorw0&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Would a deliberate effort to hire professors with conservatives views backfire or create balance? The example of Robert Nozick is given in the article as an someone who had an obvious Libertarian view but was hired for intellectual rigor and not his politics. Is that a good example?

ETA: The author concedes that there is liberal bias in US universities.

Click to expand...

What authors like this just don't get is that intolerance and narrow-mindedness are not features of political parties, but personality traits in individuals that you can find in all parties. (And religions. And any other sort of ideology). There are just some people who think there is only one right way to fold a towel and they are completely at peace with forcing it on you if they can.