It shouldn’t be surprising in this day and age to discover that conservative ideas aren’t welcome on the average American college campus. But it’s nothing short of scandalous for there to be zero Republican professors teaching in the government department at Cornell University.

The College Fix surveyed the faculty across 19 departments in the College of Arts and Sciences and found 11 departments, including government and philosophy, devoid of conservative professors. In fact, only 17 registered Republican professors were found on the payroll, mostly in economics and history.

The Fix reports:

Of the 671 scholars researched, almost 50 percent were registered Democrats, whereas only 2.5 percent were registered Republicans. About 33 percent could not be categorized, most likely because the registration name is different than their professorial name, or they are not registered to vote, or they are not registered to vote in Tompkins County. Another 13 percent were listed as “BLK,” meaning blank and defined as “no party affiliation” by the state.

A Cornell spokesman responded to the Fix and assured that party affiliation “has no role in our faculty recruitment or promotion processes.” Cornell’s provost, Michael Kotlikoff, has declared that a “diverse community is the foundation for the meaningful exploration and exchange of ideas.” But the school’s professors have a different view.

Government department Professor Richard Bensel told the Cornell Daily Sun that “a lot of the time conservative professors don’t want to work here.” He added:

“I think many mainstream Republicans have views that are anti-intellectual and anti-science. There are candidates who are creationists, don’t believe in climate change and claim that Obama’s a Muslim. Ted Cruz, for example, should not teach here. …Our job is not to mold the minds of young students — they’ll go out into the world and do that for themselves. Cornell does not have to be a banquet that offers every viewpoint.”

Well, they’re certainly firing on all cylinders there!

A Cornell Law professor writes for the great conservative law blog Legal Insurrection. William Jacobson is concerned about the lack of viewpoints represented where he teaches:

“By that measure, Cornell is failing because there is a lack of political diversity on the faculty. Considering how political viewpoints creep into so many subjects both academic and otherwise, and faculty often are opinion leaders, the lack of political diversity on the faculty necessarily deprives the entire university community of the meaningful exploration and exchange of ideas.”

And just one look at the disbursement of donations from Cornell’s professors to causes of their choice proves the vast majority of students are shepherded by extremely leftist philosophies. The report states that of the $600,000 given by professors to candidates and political parties last fall, over 96% went to Democratic campaigns. Out of 323 donors, only 15 gave to conservatives. In the College of Arts and Sciences alone, 99% of the nearly $200,000 donated went to liberal organizations.

It’s hard to have a” foundation of diversity” with numbers like that.

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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