Indiana Can’t Make Universities More Conservative With a Law
Worried about left-leaning professors, the Republican governor has signed a bill requiring state schools to pursue “intellectual diversity.” Good luck with that.
Eric Holcomb, governor of Indiana, has signed a new bill.
Photographer: Ting Shen/BloombergIndiana’s Republican governor has just signed new law that introduces “intellectual diversity” as a standard for tenure decisions in state universities. Under the law, campus boards of trustees will determine what intellectual diversity consists of, and lack of such diversity can be grounds for denying tenure. Intellectual diversity also must be considered in the post-tenure review process.
The background context here, in case you don’t already know, is that professors largely support the Democratic Party, or they are left-wing rather than conservative. The data are overwhelming. For instance, one study of top universities found that out of 7,243 faculty only 314 registered as Republican. In my personal experience, I have found that libertarians are scarce as well.