University.
Academic freedom has a long history of protecting unorthodox thinkers and contributing to the search for knowledge and truth. Unconventional ideas can later prove to be incredibly important. Unfortunately, we can’t know ahead of time which unconventional ideas will prove useful. Academic freedom – and the related concept of free speech – is part of the way a liberal society remains open to diverse views, to scientific inquiry, and to self-correction. This paper substantiates the claims that there is a serious crisis in higher education in this country. Canadian universities are political monoliths whose lack of viewpoint diversity contributes to serious problems on campus including a weakening of support for academic freedom, a hostile climate for those who disagree with left-leaning values, and significant levels of self censorship.
We conducted a survey from March 3 to 17 (administered by Leger) with the aim of understanding how the general public and professors themselves think about the role of universities and university professors in Canada today. Our survey shows that Canadian universities are seriously deficient in viewpoint diversity and have instead become politically homogenous institutions. Professors vote overwhelmingly for parties of the left and 88 percent self-identity as left-leaning, with only 9 percent voting for conservative parties (compared to 38 percent more generally). Further, it seems as though political skew is increasing in Canadian universities but a lack of good data prevents us from seeing by how much.
Organizations filled with like-minded individuals often fall prey to some of the most dangerous forms of conformity. They are likely to make significant errors in the absence of a diverse array of information, and the sameness of those within the organization leads to overconfidence by the majority and self-censorship by those who might be inclined to disagree. This leads to a climate that is hostile to those with minority political viewpoints.
When we asked if professors would be worried if their political opinions became known, almost 88 percent of left-leaning professors were either not very worried or not worried at all. However, when we looked to the right leaning political minority, the situation changed considerably: 44 percent were somewhat or very worried about facing negative consequences if colleagues, students, or others on campus learned of their political opinions. And 40 percent of right-leaning professors feel like they face a hostile work environment.
