Conservative Professors

In his op-ed (NYTimes, 9/15 A.27), Arthur Brooks attempts to make the case that university culture would be better served by welcoming and promoting to leadership roles academics who are ideologically conservative. He justifies his proposal by arguing that intellectual diversity on campus promotes a good university's primary mission, debate and the unconstrained pursuit of truth. Such an approach, he contends, would be consistent with the progressive movement's long-held credo that it is the duty of the majority (ie. liberals who predominate on campus) to fight for the minority even when that contravenes self-interest.


Although Mr. Brooks convincingly establishes that conservatives are marginalized in academia, his argument misses the point. The soul of true scholarship is a search for new meaning and a rigorous testing of old bromides. Conservatives, by definition, are committed to upholding or returning to the status quo and to resisting groundbreaking change. That is hardly a mindset to be celebrated and rewarded at institutions dedicated to inquiry and pursuit of new challenges.