The College Fix

UPDATED

ANALYSIS: Six of 13 humanities departments, almost half, appear to lack a Republican professor

Republican professors appear few and far between at the University of Oklahoma, according to original research conducted by The College Fix.

The Fix looked up professors’ political party affiliations using the public Oklahoma Election Data Warehouse. The Fix identified affiliations of 134 of the 209 professors across 13 humanities departments at the public university.

Of those 134, only nine are registered Republicans, while 101 are Democrats. Another 22 are Independents, two are Libertarians, and 75 are unidentified. The Fix only looked at data for Cleveland County, where the university’s primary campus is located. The county voted 55.7 percent for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

The Fix cross-referenced against public information, such as curriculum vitae and research papers, to match names with registrations. Other information, including estimated birth year, was matched against birthday data included in the election statistics. The Fix only looked at professors, not lecturers, adjuncts, or emeriti faculty.

The anthropology, English, psychology, philosophy, religion, and African American Studies departments do not appear to have any Republicans teaching their students, according to public data. This means six of the 13 humanities departments, almost half, seem to lack a Republican professor.

By contrast, the economics department is fairly split with three registered Democrats, two registered Republicans, one Libertarian, and one Independent.

Though the women and gender studies department is small, it has one registered Republican. This professor did not respond to a request for confirmation on their affiliation.

However, there may be crossover in some departments. When professors were listed in multiple departments, The Fix put them under what appears to be their primary discipline. These departments may have Republicans from other majors teaching classes, in addition to the other political parties.

Anthropology Chair Patrick Livingood declined to comment when reached by phone on the tilt of his department as well as any plans to further political diversity.

English Chair Rozanne Mountford and psychology Chair Lara Mayeux did not respond to emails and voicemails in the past week asking similar questions. The Fix left messages with secretaries for the African American Studies and philosophy departments seeking comment from their chairs.

The College Fix emailed most of the professors who voted Republican to confirm their party — four responded in the affirmative.

Their consensus is that politics has no place in education. One Republican professor said that his main objective at OU “is to teach [his] material objectively and fairly” and that he “never intend[s] to inject contemporary politics.”

Republican professor says university is open to a variety of views

Another professor also requested anonymity and said he opposed the idea of a perfect 50/50 split. His full comments, at his request, are attached here.

“I don’t think any University or other institution should strive for a 50/50 worker split, or that they should even inquire about a person’s liberal/conservative beliefs in the hiring process,” the professor said. “[T]hose pieces of information are outside the lines of appropriate discussion in the hiring process and when hiring the focus should be on the candidate’s skills and whether they can do the job well.”

He asked for his name not to be used so as to ensure he starts with a “clean slate.”

“I don’t want (my student’s) first piece of information about me to be my party,” he said. “I’d rather have a blank slate regarding who I am.”

He also said he has “never personally experience any situation where someone else’s politics got in the way of working towards those common goals” and said the university is a “generally welcoming place” for “all political views.”

However, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs said the university should do more to find conservative professors.

The school is “both a victim and a perpetrator of bias” and “OU’s administration has been happy to march to the far left’s tune,” spokesman Trent England told The Fix via email.

“If diversity matters to universities, then they have a duty to find, hire, and cultivate conservative faculty so that students, and faculty themselves, have access to a truly diverse set of viewpoints,” England said.

“Universities that obsess over skin color and pronouns, but in fact have faculty that all think alike, are using a very shallow concept of ‘diversity’ as a weapon to prevent much more meaningful diversity,” he said.

He said education must be a “conversation” otherwise it is “just indoctrination.”

“A robust conversation about ideas requires people from various viewpoints,” England said.

After publication, a registered Republican professor reached out to The Fix to provide further comments. He had not received the the initial inquiry.

The professor said “the environment here is even worse than the article suggests.  I doubt all of those R’s are actually R’s.”

“More generally, conservative and moderate students seem scared to speak freely,” the professor said, “the tenure expectations in the humanities are really low for a research institution which means that faculty with silly research agendas can be pushed through.”

“[S]tudents who like America have a very hard time finding classes; and, generally, the faculty are way out of alignment with the student body and just do their own thing.”

Democrats typically outnumber Republicans, prior research finds

This is the latest report to find a gap between Democrat and Republican professors at public universities in red states. A 2022 study by The Fix found similar results at the University of Oklahoma.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 98 to 1 at Cornell University, The Fix found in 2022.

A 2022 survey of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty found Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a 16 to 1 ratio.

The results were less tilted at Ohio State University, where Democratic professors outnumbered Republican ones by a ratio of about 7 to 1.

The ratio of Democrats to Republicans at the University of Nebraska-Omaha is 5 to 1, according to a Fix analysis.

Other College Fix research has shown that donations from faculty members favor Democrats. For example, 98 percent of federal donations University of Wisconsin professors went to Democrats in 2020.

The Fix has chosen not to publish its spreadsheet of specific names to protect the identity of Republican professors.

Breakdown:

Anthropology:
Democrats: 15
Independents: 3
Republicans:0
Unknown: 4
Libertarians: 0
Total: 22

African American Studies:
Democrats: 2
Independents: 2
Republicans: 0
Unknown: 1
Libertarians: 0
Total: 5

Classics And Letters:
Democrats: 6
Independents: 1
Republicans: 2
Unknown: 2
Libertarians: 0
Total: 11

Communications:
Democrats: 7
Independents: 1
Republicans: 1
Unknown: 5
Libertarians: 1
Total: 15

Economics:
Democrats: 3
Independents: 1
Republicans: 2
Unknown: 10
Libertarians: 1
Total: 17

English:
Democrats: 14
Independents: 2
Republicans: 0
Unknown: 6
Libertarians: 0
Total: 22

History:
Democrats: 15
Independents: 2
Republicans: 1
Unknown: 13
Libertarians: 0
Total: 31

Philosophy:
Democrats: 5
Independents: 2
Republicans: 0
Unknown: 6
Libertarians: 0
Total: 13

Political Science:
Democrats: 13
Independents: 3
Republicans: 1
Unknown: 6
Libertarians: 0
Total: 23

Psychology:
Democrats: 7
Independents: 2
Republicans: 0
Unknown: 10
Libertarians: 0
Total: 19

Religions:
Democrats: 2
Independents: 0
Republicans: 0
Unknown: 4
Libertarians: 0
Total: 6

Sociology:
Democrats: 10
Independents: 3
Republicans: 1
Unknown: 5
Libertarians: 0
Total: 19

Women And Gender Studies:
Democrats: 2
Independents: 0
Republicans: 1
Unknown: 3
Libertarians: 0
Total: 6

Editor’s note: The article has been updated, including explaining where the data comes from and with a quote from a Republican professor who had not received the initial emails sent to professors.

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IMAGE: University of Oklahoma/YouTube

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