CW Von Bergen Martin S Bressler Southeastern Oklahoma State University We American colleges and universities champion tolerance except for conservatives and evangelical Christians We want to be inclusive of people who dont look like usso long as they think like us ID: 654208
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Slide1
Viewpoint Diversity and Discrimination in Higher Education
C.W. Von Bergen
Martin S. Bressler
Southeastern Oklahoma State UniversitySlide2
“We [American colleges and universities] champion tolerance, except for conservatives and evangelical Christians. We want to be inclusive of people who don’t look like us—so long as they think like us.”
--New
Y
ork Times journalist
Nicholas Kristoff (2016)Slide3
Higher Education Leads the Way!
Higher education leads the way in working toward a more diverse, representative, welcoming, and supportive environment that increases inclusiveness, promotes greater equity, and enriches the marketplace of ideas, opinions, and beliefs (Haidt et al., 2015; King, Mitchell, McIntosh, & Bell-
E
llwanger, 2016).Slide4
Costs of a homogeneous liberal culture
Negative impact on pedagogy as fewer questions are asked
Motivated information processing….confirmation bias!
Defense against worldview violating groups….a consistent worldview leads to intolerance
Increased political scrutiny as governments question whether free speech is being enforced at public universities (Tennessee)Slide5
Hostile climate
Conservatives are less intelligent—Hodson & Buseri, 2012
Conservatives are more simple minded—Conway et al., 2016
Conservatives are more rigid, dogmatic, and inflexible—Jost et al., 2003
Conservatives are often prone to expedient, close-minded, and authoritarian solutions—Altemeyer, 1998; Kruglanski, 2004; Sidanius, Pratto, & Bobo, 1996 Slide6
Prejudice and discrimination
Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of University of Virginia
(1995)-university refused funding for a student religious newspaper
Flint v. Dennison
(2007)-viewpoint neutrality requires the government does not favor one speaker’s message over another’s on the same topicSlide7
Discrimination in research
Ceci, Peters, & Plotkin (1985) found that research proposals hypothesizing “reverse discrimination” or conventional discrimination submitted to 150 Internal Review Boards resulted in reverse discrimination studies less likely to be approved.Slide8
Recommendations
Universities should provide a balanced view, allow for a wide range of thought and opinion
Opinion should not be confused with fact
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their facts.” ---former NY Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Universities should not restrict speech that some consider “controversial”, “distasteful”, or “hateful”Slide9
Conclusion
John Stuart Mill (1859) believed that the adversarial system of competing ideas served democratic principles and was also a vehicle for finding truth
Listening and being exposed to viewpoints that differ from one’s personal views can often make individuals more tolerant (Mutz, 2006) Slide10
Thank you, and remember…
“Maybe the difference between first marriage and second marriage is that the second time at least you know you are gambling.”
―
Elizabeth Gilbert
,
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with MarriageSlide11
But………...
According to Dr. George Yancey, a black, evangelical Christian professor at UNT,
“Outside of academia I faced more problems as a black. But inside academia, I face more problems as a Christian, and it is not even close.”Slide12
Four Levels of Diversity
Organizational dimensions-functional level, work location, management status, union affiliation, seniority
External dimensions-marital status, income, appearance, religion, personal habits, educational background
Internal dimensions-age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical ability
Personality
Loden & Rosener,
W
orkforce America!
Irwin, 1991Slide13
Viewpoint Diversity
The First Amendment addresses freedom of speech and in 1978, the Supreme Court affirmed in
National Citizens Committee/or Broadcasting
that the First Amendment seeks diversity of “viewpoint” and in 1983, in
Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators’ Association
ruled that viewpoint discrimination is never permitted.Slide14
We are leaning left
Over the years, higher education has shifted significantly to a collectively liberal viewpoint. According to Willick (2016) “Despite it’s almost religious reverence for racial and sexual diversity, the academy has allowed political diversity in certain quarters to the point of vanishing.”Slide15
Where are the conservatives?
Duarte et al. (2015) reported 58-66 of social science faculty members as liberal, while only 5-8 percent identified as conservatives
Within elite universities in New England, liberal professors outnumbered conservatives by 28-to-1 (Walker, 2016)