By Kevin Owen and Antoine Tettelin
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
We’ve heard the argument time and time again:
Public universities are too liberal. College professors are spreading liberal propaganda. Universities have “gone woke.”
But are these claims true?
The Baltimore Watchdog interviewed universities officials at five Maryland institutions over the past two weeks to learn how the faculty hiring process works. The purpose of the interviews was to determine what university hiring committees look for when hiring a new professor and whether – as some critics claim – ideology plays a role.
Those interviewed said the hiring process at colleges and universities is lengthy and comprehensive, with numerous policies in place to ensure an objective analysis of all job candidates.
School officials said they must first show top administrators that there is a need to hire a person. They cannot just hire someone out of the blue.
Once they do that, officials said, they need to post the job and form a search committee. Job advertisements are posted in various places, such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, academic journals that match the field, and online websites related to that discipline.
Applicants are expected to, at a minimum, provide a résumé, a cover letter and, at some point, a writing sample and letters of recommendation.
Search committees are made up of professors who have similar research backgrounds, and they are usually formed before the process begins. Committees typically include both associate and assistant professors, and sometimes an outside member who makes sure the process is completed fairly.
“We are looking for both similarity and diversity, and people who have very similar research creative backgrounds and some folks who have some very different set of vibes,” said Dr. Jennifer Keohane, program director of digital communications at the University of Baltimore.
The committee then reviews the applications to see who is truly qualified. They look at specific qualifications that are decided by the university at the highest levels, and most of them are determined by the position of need.
“That is decided by the university administration at the highest level, like the university general counsel and the leading authorities,” said Dr. Ahmet Karamustafa, chair of history at the University of Maryland.
Some of the qualifications needed include that the applicant must have a Ph.D., be able to teach and conduct research, and that their field of expertise aligns with the position they are seeking.
Once each candidate’s qualifications have been assessed, the search committee makes a list of the top applicants who committee members want to interview.
The committee typically interviews job candidates online, either on the phone or on Zoom. Applicants are asked about their teaching experience, area of scholarly expertise, and the research methodology they typically use. Candidates are then given a chance to ask questions about the job for which they are applying.
Once that is done, the committee makes a list of the top candidates to invite to campus.
Once on campus, the candidate meets with the faculty, the dean and the provost. They are expected to give a lecture to a real class, conduct a research demonstration to highlight their scholarly interest, and they meet again with the search committee. They are typically taken to lunch and dinner with other faculty members and get a chance to ask any final questions.
Once that is done, the committee chooses the best candidate and sends its recommendation to the department chair.
Political ideology does not play a role in a job search, all of them said.
“I have never been in an interview where I have asked a candidate anything about their political ideology. We’re actually not really allowed to Google search an applicant because that’s a bias,” said Dr. Denise Meringolo, chair of the history department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
One of the main reasons school officials say they do not ask about political ideology is because the political leaning of a professor is not supposed to play a role in the classroom.
College professors are there to help students ask questions and find facts to support their arguments, officials said, regardless of what their beliefs are. Professors do not typically care if students agree with them, Keohane said, adding that most faculty members take seriously their job of helping students do great research.
In addition, college professors do not want to ask about ideology because they believe that it is out of place, those who were interviewed said. They said most professors believe they should not be focused on politics and instead focus on teaching students good values they can use later in life.
“I don’t think it is appropriate to ask an incoming faculty member about their political ideology, because in a history class we’re not teaching political ideology,” Meringolo said. “It doesn’t matter what a person’s political ideology is because what they’re teaching students is: Where are your primary sources? What is the evidence from your primary sources?”
Research shows that college professors tend to be liberal, even without being specifically hired because of their ideology. A study done by The Chronicle at Duke University showed that a little over 61% of faculty at the university see themselves as politically liberal, and 23% say they are very politically liberal.
With this also being a trend within other universities, professors could easily come together and push their beliefs onto their students — but it’s a bit more challenging than that.
“I can’t get my students to read the syllabus, let alone the course material,” Keohane said. “So, even if I was trying to indoctrinate students, there’s no guarantee they’ll listen.”
The question still stands: Why do college professors tend to lean left politically and vote for the Democratic Party?
“In recent years, there seems to be a partisan split between those with bachelor’s degrees and advanced degrees and everyone else,” said Dr. Eric Rittinger, chair of the political science department at Salisbury University.
Rittinger said while most college professors within the humanities fields tend to be liberal, there are conservative professors at universities mainly within economics and business departments.
One reason professors may be more liberal, Keohane said, is that many of them go into debt while pursuing their Ph.D. and, therefore, can empathies with the challenges people face.
“It’s hard to go through challenges and not feel empathy for others and believe in worker solidarity and things of that nature,” Keohane said.
While they can’t ask every department in every college to be half Democrats and half Republicans, there are different things professors can do to promote ideological diversity.
“As an instructor of journalism law and ethics, I’d say we need to go back to that marketplace of ideas,” said Dr. Stacy Spaulding, department chair of mass communications at Towson University. “We need to support open inquiry, civil discourse and respectful debate.”