The drop in favorability of higher education among Republicans is larger than any other drop, and one of the biggest changes overall. Perhaps this helps explain what’s happening in Alaska?
Not a Surprise
07/29/2019
Universities have pushed liberal ideology for decades, but since Trump’s election, it has become so extreme that the public increasingly can’t help but notice. A large share of faculty not only explicitly and publicly oppose Trump, but also view liberal activism as an appropriate part of higher education’s mission. These trends are present almost everywhere, but especially visible at the University of Oregon. You can hardly blame Republicans for not viewing them positively.
Cassie
08/05/2019
This ship is turning. Universities cannot survive when they are an obvious anti-conservative political monoculture, especially at the prices students must pay. The ideological narrowing (and intolerance) and the financial impossibilities will lead us to the end. We will see a vast transformation of higher ed, pushed by conservative states, in which the 4-year signaling degree will no longer be a gateway to good employment. Certificates and licenses and examinations and experience will be the new gateways. Many sectors are already moving in this direction. Accreditation will be greatly relaxed.
The universities will be broken down into different units from what we have now. Only a very few schools will preserve ancient languages and the traditional humanities. The demise of those fields is already in progress. The two-year socialization degree will be around to bring lagging students up to needed competences with math, writing, etc, though this work will probably be separated from the universities that are left. Laboratories and advanced math and natural sciences will be at fewer schools. Learning how to code or program does not require college. Replication crisis and questionable surveys and write-ups of self-reported data will be used as grounds to reduce the mountains of doubtful “research” we produce now. Some academic careers will end in the middle, and transitions will be painful.
The truly elite ($) universities will survive this transformation, but the idea of mass higher ed as it was envisioned in the 1960s will be abandoned. We’re already in a different world from that. It’s sad when something ambitious and potentially great passes, but the walk through the institution has done its work.
Deplorable Duck
08/06/2019
This is a great comment, but I don’t follow the final clause. What is “the walk through the institution”?
Rudi
08/08/2019
Probably an attenuated and somewhat ironic reference to the new left phrase, “long march through the institutions,” i.e. the subversion of the institution through infiltration.
honest Uncle Bernie
07/30/2019
Not too much of a mystery. Higher education drips with contempt for Republicans, the half or so of the country that supports Trump enough to vote for him, conservatives, flyover people, the deplorables. I’ve heard obscenity-laced examples in official public presentations at UO in the past year! Folks, this is not smart.
The boobs have caught on and are returning the disdain. One can easily find the indictments, justified or not, at many websites.
uomattersPost author | 07/30/2019
yeah but why do they like unions?
honest Uncle Bernie
07/31/2019
Well, they don’t like unions all THAT much — but their support has been gradually increasing, while support for higher ed has dived.
I suspect a lot of the union support is because Republicans have increasingly become the party of the working class, the white working class. While they regard the Democrats as the party of the rich and the underclass. The Republicans have turned a lot from free trade, globalization, the endless foreign wars. This is reflected in Trump’s support.
You could probably read more about the intellectual underpinnings of all this by googling on National Conservatism Conference — a recent event with a lot of ideas along the lines above.
I’m only lightly familiar with this conference, but enough to have an inkling what’s going on. This is the kind of stuff that’s entirely easy to miss at a contemporary university.
It’s unfortunate, if only because I don’t think academics really appreciate — in the sense of understanding — what is happening to them in terms of public support.
I don’t think they understand the fury that is being unleashed against them from half (or more) of the country.
just different
07/31/2019
There’s a much simpler explanation: Over the past ten or so years the right-wing media bubble–where the great majority of Republicans get all their information–has been devoting a lot of airtime to portraying universities as dripping with contempt. This has proven to be much better for ratings than the Reaganite approach of demonizing unions.
thedude
08/02/2019
I’m pretty sure our dean sent out emails offering support groups for students and faculty when Trump won. Would have done the same if Clinton had won? Will the new dean do the same if a democrat wins this time? Don’t kid yourself, political diversity is not celebrated on campus, and neither is intellectual diversity. The same is true across most universities.
Deplorable Duck
08/03/2019
I grew up in the Bible Belt and (being a natural libertarian) learned early how to keep my mouth shut and my head down. The intolerance at UO feels very familiar, and those lessons serve me well today. The one notable difference is that back then there was a sharp boundary between shunning and actual violence, whereas today, the latter no longer seems beyond the pale if performed in the service of “virtue”.
It might just be “same as it ever was”, but it feels worse.
Dog
08/03/2019
I don;t think it is actually worse, I think you saturated and that is why you feel worse. I saturated a long time ago. And yes, we did get emails about Trump winning Support groups which I thought was just pathetic and inappropriate. I would also re-word intellectual diversity to diversity of opinion – if you don’t do groupthink at the UO then your a disruptive voice to be ignored at all times.
just different
08/03/2019
This is disingenuous. Nobody sent out emails when Bush won. Stop pretending that the problem people have with Trump is that he’s a Republican (which he really isn’t, anyway).
Deplorable Duck
07/31/2019
Because the Democrats are dripping with contempt for the kinds of people that are in unions: those that “take a shower after they get home from work” (to quote tonight’s debate).
When those you’ve relied on to have your back don’t anymore, it’s time to move your back. Good for them.
Unless Trump gets hit by a bus or something, these Democratic candidates will ensure his re-election.
(That said, Biden is trying, Gabbard is interesting, and Yang is so smart that it won’t surprise me if he ends up with a position in Trump’s cabinet.)
Conservative duck
07/30/2019
Millions of students, millions in debt, to “earn” degrees in useless, unpractical majors…gee I wonder why conservatives aren’t just lapping this up, what are they, uneducated?!
charlie
07/30/2019
The Republican Party isn’t monolithic, and has factions. My parents were Eisenhower republicans, you know, the ones who opposed foreign wars, the amalgamation of military, government, and corporations, growth of public deficits, and federal subsidization of industry. They would now be on a watch list because of their “seditious” thinking…
Anonymous
07/30/2019
I have long ago no longer understood the difference between conservative and liberal, much less how what difference translates into how University curriculum is presented. This is the ear of instant labeling so I can at any time say “gee, there is a dog running in circles outside and chasing the ghost of its tail” and that will be immediately labelled by anyone within earshot as either a conservative or liberal state.
Also, most everyone that posts on this blog seems quite self-assured on what conservative thinking/presentation is compared to liberal/thinking presentation, so the self-assured doesn’t need to read the following.
However, for the minority out there like me that no longer really understands anything in the current world, this is a nice summary of liberal vs conservative with various areas of application.
Ok, I took a look at the link. I think it’s out of date. For example:
“We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets.”
This may be historically true, but is not consistent with current national politics in the U.S. Current U.S. politics isn’t concerned with minimizing suffering; it’s concerned with who is suffering and who deserves to suffer, and who should be forced to suffer more. The current dialogue surrounding immigration is a perfect example of this.
thedude
07/31/2019
Is this part of our bargain for rich out of state students? We get them through the activist take of many faculty but then students from rural Oregon never go to college. I hate that tradeoff.
The drop in favorability of higher education among Republicans is larger than any other drop, and one of the biggest changes overall. Perhaps this helps explain what’s happening in Alaska?
Universities have pushed liberal ideology for decades, but since Trump’s election, it has become so extreme that the public increasingly can’t help but notice. A large share of faculty not only explicitly and publicly oppose Trump, but also view liberal activism as an appropriate part of higher education’s mission. These trends are present almost everywhere, but especially visible at the University of Oregon. You can hardly blame Republicans for not viewing them positively.
This ship is turning. Universities cannot survive when they are an obvious anti-conservative political monoculture, especially at the prices students must pay. The ideological narrowing (and intolerance) and the financial impossibilities will lead us to the end. We will see a vast transformation of higher ed, pushed by conservative states, in which the 4-year signaling degree will no longer be a gateway to good employment. Certificates and licenses and examinations and experience will be the new gateways. Many sectors are already moving in this direction. Accreditation will be greatly relaxed.
The universities will be broken down into different units from what we have now. Only a very few schools will preserve ancient languages and the traditional humanities. The demise of those fields is already in progress. The two-year socialization degree will be around to bring lagging students up to needed competences with math, writing, etc, though this work will probably be separated from the universities that are left. Laboratories and advanced math and natural sciences will be at fewer schools. Learning how to code or program does not require college. Replication crisis and questionable surveys and write-ups of self-reported data will be used as grounds to reduce the mountains of doubtful “research” we produce now. Some academic careers will end in the middle, and transitions will be painful.
The truly elite ($) universities will survive this transformation, but the idea of mass higher ed as it was envisioned in the 1960s will be abandoned. We’re already in a different world from that. It’s sad when something ambitious and potentially great passes, but the walk through the institution has done its work.
This is a great comment, but I don’t follow the final clause. What is “the walk through the institution”?
Probably an attenuated and somewhat ironic reference to the new left phrase, “long march through the institutions,” i.e. the subversion of the institution through infiltration.
Not too much of a mystery. Higher education drips with contempt for Republicans, the half or so of the country that supports Trump enough to vote for him, conservatives, flyover people, the deplorables. I’ve heard obscenity-laced examples in official public presentations at UO in the past year! Folks, this is not smart.
The boobs have caught on and are returning the disdain. One can easily find the indictments, justified or not, at many websites.
yeah but why do they like unions?
Well, they don’t like unions all THAT much — but their support has been gradually increasing, while support for higher ed has dived.
I suspect a lot of the union support is because Republicans have increasingly become the party of the working class, the white working class. While they regard the Democrats as the party of the rich and the underclass. The Republicans have turned a lot from free trade, globalization, the endless foreign wars. This is reflected in Trump’s support.
You could probably read more about the intellectual underpinnings of all this by googling on National Conservatism Conference — a recent event with a lot of ideas along the lines above.
I’m only lightly familiar with this conference, but enough to have an inkling what’s going on. This is the kind of stuff that’s entirely easy to miss at a contemporary university.
It’s unfortunate, if only because I don’t think academics really appreciate — in the sense of understanding — what is happening to them in terms of public support.
I don’t think they understand the fury that is being unleashed against them from half (or more) of the country.
There’s a much simpler explanation: Over the past ten or so years the right-wing media bubble–where the great majority of Republicans get all their information–has been devoting a lot of airtime to portraying universities as dripping with contempt. This has proven to be much better for ratings than the Reaganite approach of demonizing unions.
I’m pretty sure our dean sent out emails offering support groups for students and faculty when Trump won. Would have done the same if Clinton had won? Will the new dean do the same if a democrat wins this time? Don’t kid yourself, political diversity is not celebrated on campus, and neither is intellectual diversity. The same is true across most universities.
I grew up in the Bible Belt and (being a natural libertarian) learned early how to keep my mouth shut and my head down. The intolerance at UO feels very familiar, and those lessons serve me well today. The one notable difference is that back then there was a sharp boundary between shunning and actual violence, whereas today, the latter no longer seems beyond the pale if performed in the service of “virtue”.
It might just be “same as it ever was”, but it feels worse.
I don;t think it is actually worse, I think you saturated and that is why you feel worse. I saturated a long time ago. And yes, we did get emails about Trump winning Support groups which I thought was just pathetic and inappropriate. I would also re-word intellectual diversity to diversity of opinion – if you don’t do groupthink at the UO then your a disruptive voice to be ignored at all times.
This is disingenuous. Nobody sent out emails when Bush won. Stop pretending that the problem people have with Trump is that he’s a Republican (which he really isn’t, anyway).
Because the Democrats are dripping with contempt for the kinds of people that are in unions: those that “take a shower after they get home from work” (to quote tonight’s debate).
When those you’ve relied on to have your back don’t anymore, it’s time to move your back. Good for them.
Unless Trump gets hit by a bus or something, these Democratic candidates will ensure his re-election.
(That said, Biden is trying, Gabbard is interesting, and Yang is so smart that it won’t surprise me if he ends up with a position in Trump’s cabinet.)
Millions of students, millions in debt, to “earn” degrees in useless, unpractical majors…gee I wonder why conservatives aren’t just lapping this up, what are they, uneducated?!
The Republican Party isn’t monolithic, and has factions. My parents were Eisenhower republicans, you know, the ones who opposed foreign wars, the amalgamation of military, government, and corporations, growth of public deficits, and federal subsidization of industry. They would now be on a watch list because of their “seditious” thinking…
I have long ago no longer understood the difference between conservative and liberal, much less how what difference translates into how University curriculum is presented. This is the ear of instant labeling so I can at any time say “gee, there is a dog running in circles outside and chasing the ghost of its tail” and that will be immediately labelled by anyone within earshot as either a conservative or liberal state.
Also, most everyone that posts on this blog seems quite self-assured on what conservative thinking/presentation is compared to liberal/thinking presentation, so the self-assured doesn’t need to read the following.
However, for the minority out there like me that no longer really understands anything in the current world, this is a nice summary of liberal vs conservative with various areas of application.
https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/
Ok, I took a look at the link. I think it’s out of date. For example:
“We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets.”
This may be historically true, but is not consistent with current national politics in the U.S. Current U.S. politics isn’t concerned with minimizing suffering; it’s concerned with who is suffering and who deserves to suffer, and who should be forced to suffer more. The current dialogue surrounding immigration is a perfect example of this.
Is this part of our bargain for rich out of state students? We get them through the activist take of many faculty but then students from rural Oregon never go to college. I hate that tradeoff.