The College Fix

University of Colorado Regent Jim Geddes, a Republican, was told by a CU Boulder professor that the “campus lacks political diversity, conservatives are made fun of for their views and there seemed to be a housecleaning of conservatives following former President Hank Brown’s departure,” reports The Daily Camera.

Shocking? Scandalous? No – more like common and widespread, at Colorado campuses and most others across the nation.

But bravo to University of Colorado regents for at least taking the tiniest step forward in addressing the matter, at least in their state. They approved a measure Thursday to undertake an independent climate survey to help determine whether the school respects political diversity, the Camera reported.

The roughly $100,000 climate study will also evaluate other forms of diversity, such as race, gender and sexual orientation, reported the paper, which also detailed some interesting testimony that led to the unanimous vote – the one abstention.

Mark Bauerlein, a professor from Emory University who has described himself as an “educational conservative,” addressed the board via videoconference to share his experience when he took a one-year leave of absence to teach at CU.

Bauerlein said he met with the chair of the English department, who, he said, told him that people regarded him as nothing but a “polemicist.” The loaded term, Bauerlein said, is unfair because it insinuates that he couldn’t be trusted in the classroom or wouldn’t be fair to students. However, Bauerlein said he had “very strong support” from Chancellor Phil DiStefano and President Bruce Benson.

Carol Perry, who testified to the board, said she would never send her daughters to CU because of what she perceives to be a persistent liberal bias.

Chris Schaefbauer, a student government executive, told the board he was opposed to the resolution that sought to prohibit discrimination based on political affiliation. Historically, those protected by discrimination rules or laws have been oppressed or underrepresented.

CU law professor Bob Nagel told the board that in some departments — including the law school — the homogeneity of faculty limits and degrades education. Despite faculty members’ “heartfelt” commitment to diversity, he said, they can’t be relied upon to address the problem of ideological homogeneity.

Criticism about a lack of political balance specifically targeted the Boulder campus.

We assure CU regents and everyone else, although Boulder is notoriously left-leaning, these anecdotes testified on before the board could be seconded by conservative-leaning professors everywhere, or at least the one or two that can be found at each campus,  if they’re willing to come forth.

We eagerly await the results of the survey.

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