NOT CONVINCED ON LIBERAL BIAS

Shame on you for the article debunking the study of a liberal bias in your latest issue of AFT On Campus (“Getting the facts on liberal bias in higher education,” November 2006). I work in two community colleges in Seattle and there is a very blatant liberal bias at these schools. It can be seen on the walls, heard in employee conversations and the latest example was obvious right before the elections. I received eight fliers (some different, some repeated, most printed on very expensive colored paper, by the way) in the mail telling me how to vote. Needless to say, the “recommended” issues and candidates leaned one way and were not “conservative” issues. Sometimes these things can’t be measured quantitatively, but they definitely exist.

Holly Havnaer
Seattle, Wash.

If the data suggesting a liberal bias is so “weak,” how can your organization be certain that a majority on most campuses truly supports collective bargaining and labor unions—an inherently leftist form of labor market organization? 

Pamela J. Brown
Northridge, Calif.

Editor’s note: The question compares apples and oranges. A duly elected bargaining agent and its elected leaders are not synonymous with a study or attitude survey.

Once again AFT On Campus engaged in the type of “research” that is simply liberal polemics in disguise. In the November issue, your “report” (selective as it was) attempted to persuade your readers that studies demonstrating a clear bias in academe are unworthy and actually biased themselves. While these only represent a small number of the available information (for example, UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute Faculty Survey, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, reveals that over 50 percent of the professors call themselves liberal or far left while less than 19 percent view themselves as conservative or far right; the Institute for Jewish and Community Research puts the liberal/left group at 3 of 4), the evidence is clear: academe is liberal, not conservative. Why don’t you engage in objective research (if that is possible) and lay this controversy to rest once and for all? Would you fear the results?

Fred Skydog Emerling
Fresno, Calif.

Bias is “a particular inclination or tendency, especially one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.” That academics come to conclusions that are called liberal is not evidence of bias. On the contrary, academics tend to be well-informed, to have above-average intelligence and to have an above-average desire for reasoned conclusions. Those who cry “academic liberal bias” call their own biases into question.

Dick Ricketts
Lincoln City, Ore.

BREATHING EASIER

Thanks for publishing the article “Living, Working, Breathing” (cover story, Dec. 06-Jan. 07). Our library’s AV department was having a problem with ventilation and a bit of molding. An employee was constantly getting sick while trying to clean it up, and management only offered piecemeal fixes to the problem. The article empowered them to take some measures to ensure their safety. When they took those steps management finally relented and is calling in a risk management team to do the work.

Dan Golodner
Detroit, Mich.