Heads Up, Professors: I Need To Know Your Political Affiliation
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Politics and Activism

Heads Up, Professors: I Need To Know Your Political Affiliation

Iowa presses for universities to check political affiliation for sake of "diversity"

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Heads Up, Professors: I Need To Know Your Political Affiliation
Omicron Delta Kappa

Colleges around the United States have embraced this idea of diversity and freedom of thought. The pool of people which make up our educational institutions allows for a wide range of perspectives. Whether it be religion, political affiliation, or life experience, students are exposed to varying opinions that help shape their world view. Sometimes, certain environments will tend to be dominated by a specific worldview, but that is okay. According to Iowa state senator Mark Chelgren, however, any domination of one particular thought is a hindrance to our universities.

In a recent bill proposed by the above senator, universities ought to know the political affiliation of all professors, current or incoming. “The bill seeks to 'require partisan balance’ of the faculty members who work at institutions governed by the Iowa Board of Regents, according to its text” (Sarah Larimer, Washington Post). In a nutshell, there would need to be an equal spread of political perspective among the faculty so as not to sway the student population. As Sarah Larimer explains in her article, there could not be greater than ten percent bias of one party over another.

There is obviously a huge problem with this; the bill would, in some ways, require discrimination based solely on political affiliation. Somehow, Chelgren is forcing discrimination into a proposition that celebrates even amounts of diversity, seriously? Essentially, this law fights against itself. If a university starts off with the ability to choose its faculty based on political affiliation, who is to say that next, it would not require complete agreement on one party?

Since we have the right to a private ballot, it seems entirely un-American to see people through the filter of which way they vote. Yes, there are plenty of people out there plastering their views on social media, but that is not the whole population. How wrong to make a college campus seem like it isn't trying to sway its students, but in the same way, potentially swaying the political affiliation of its faculty.

Sometimes, the best way to strengthen our own world view is being thrust into a setting where our view is the minority. Hold the objection. How will young people know how to defend, and not just give their opinions, the values they hold to without those values being challenged? We submit ourselves to a smaller scale of dictatorship when we comply with the beliefs held by those in our lives just because something is at risk (in this case, an occupation).

For more insights on this highly debated proposition, see the full article here.



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