In recent years, a number of prominent political commentators have
raised concerns about the lack of ideological diversity on college
campuses (Shapiro 2004; Black 2004; Kors and Silvergate 1999; Kimball 1998). Among
other accusations, they claim that liberal college professors may
actually penalize students for expressing conservative opinions by
assigning them lower marks on exams and assignments (Horowitz 2003; Hebel 2004).
Their concern is not without merit. Researchers have found that,
when evaluating a colleague's research, college professors are more
critical of work that contradicts their own views (Mahoney 1977). It is logical to assume that the same
bias influences professors' evaluations of students' arguments. It
is also reasonable to expect that students, charged with the
important task of evaluating their professors, are vulnerable to
their own ideological biases.We thank
Markus Kemmelmeier and Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier for their
helpful suggestions and valuable guidance. We also acknowledge
the valuable support of research assistants Jessica Defenderfer,
Cristina Ciocirlan, and Kathleen Winters. Finally, we would like
to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the dozens of political
science faculty throughout the country who took the time to
distribute our survey to their undergraduate students. This
project would not have been possible without their generous
assistance. This research was funded through a Faculty Research
Grant from Elizabethtown College.