AMERICANS' VIEWS OF POLITICAL BIAS IN THE ACADEMY AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

In recent years, the American professoriate has come under attack from conservative commentators and activists. Critics such as David Horowitz charge that leftists have taken over many academic disciplines and use their college or university posts as platforms for pursuing partisan political goals. Students for Academic Freedom, a group founded by Horowitz, has embarked on a nationwide campaign to promote the cause of “intellectual diversity” in teaching, faculty appointments, and research, where intellectual diversity is taken to include diversity of political viewpoints. As part of this campaign, Horowitz has authored an “Academic Bill of Rights” asserting that students are entitled to an education free of “political, ideological or religious orthodoxy” imposed upon them by professors. This right, he argues, is routinely infringed by liberal academics who