9-16: "People will die"

✅ Is Academe Awash in Liberal Bias?

Most people think so. They’re wrong.

—CHE

     Is academe dominated by liberals? Most people think so. And why wouldn’t they? It’s what we hear all the time on social media, in newspaper and magazine articles, and even in academe itself. Conservatives routinely call out higher education’s “liberal bias,” and sometimes insist that something should be done to ensure that conservative voices are heard within the ivory tower.

     Some 59 percent of Republicans now say that colleges have a negative effect on the country. Recently, this complaint went all the way to the White House, as President Trump announced his intention to re-examine universities’ nonprofit status, claiming that they are all about “Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education.” Back in the 1970s, the famous Powell memo called upon conservatives to develop think tanks to counter the liberal bias of American universities.

     But is the claim true? Are conservatives underrepresented in academic life? The answer depends in part on how one defines “liberal.”

     The most comprehensive study to date of American faculty politics found a much more centrist professoriate than is alleged in conservative discourse. In that 2006 study, the sociologists Neil Gross and Solon Simmons found that some 44 percent of professors described themselves as “extremely liberal” (9 percent) or “liberal” (35 percent); 46 percent described themselves in centrist terms (18 percent as “slightly liberal,” 17 percent as “middle of the road,” and 11 percent as “slightly conservative”); 8 percent described themselves as “conservative” and 1 percent as “extremely conservative.” In other words, liberals outnumber conservatives, but the largest cohort of faculty — 46 percent — are moderates, spanning the terrain between center-left and center-right.

     Political views vary by discipline. Gross and Simmons found the highest concentrations of conservative faculty in business and health sciences (25 percent and 21 percent respectively). Computer science and engineering have a high proportion of moderates (78 percent) with a symmetrical split of liberals and conservatives (11 percent each).

     These disciplinary differences matter, because students are not uniformly distributed across the disciplines. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the two most popular majors are business and health sciences — the same fields with the highest concentrations of conservative faculty members….

✅ Wanted: Black Studies Scholars (Only)

—Inside Higher Ed

     University of Chicago English says it's only admitting Black studies Ph.D. candidates for 2021 admissions cycle, citing Black Lives Matter and the field's complicated history with regard to race.

     Departments have been having quiet conversations since the start of the pandemic about how graduate admissions will be affected: Will there be money to support new graduate students in COVID-19-reduced budgets? Even if there is money, is it ethical to admit new Ph.D. students amid widespread faculty hiring freezes?

     With the arrival of the 2021 graduate admissions cycle, these conversations are now becoming public. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s history department, for example, recently said that it is accepting no new graduate students for fall 2021.

     The English department at the University of Chicago made a similar decision, with a twist: the program will admit only those graduate students who plan to work in Black studies….

✅ The Nuances of the Free College Debate

—Inside Higher Ed

Some Democrats and some Republicans don't fit neatly into their expected boxes on the issue.

     Campaigning at Florida Memorial University last week, Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris emphasized the importance of going to college, including historically Black colleges and universities like the one where she was speaking.

     “It is the place where we nurture young people to see who they are and their role as part of leadership of our nation in whatever profession they choose,” she said.

     And she said that she and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would make going to college free for most students.

     That went over well, because what’s not to like about free, right?

     But less than two months before the election, one of the divisions between Biden and his Republican opponent, President Donald Trump, is over the Democratic plan to make attendance free at two-year colleges, as well as for those whose families make less than $125,000 at public four-year colleges, as well as public and private HBCUs....

From Rough& Tumble

✅ California’s Proposition 15 Would Raise Taxes On Businesses While Supporting Schools, Local Governments -- California voters will decide this fall whether to approve Proposition 15, a major change to the state’s historic property tax law that would raise taxes on large businesses, while providing up to $11.5 billion per year to fund public schools, community colleges and local governments. Chris Nichols Capital Public Radio -- 9/16/20

✅ COVID deaths among young people: Diverse communities hit hardest -- Although a small proportion of people under the age of 21 are dying from complications associated with COVID-19 in the U.S., a disproportionate number of these deaths are in communities of color, according to a new report issued by the CDC Tuesday. Al Saracevic in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/16/20

✅ Coronavirus: California jobless claims are “startlingly high,” researchers say -- California unemployment claims are at “startlingly high” levels and the brutal trends in jobless filings point to a “mixed” recovery for the state’s suddenly wobbly economy amid the coronavirus, a report Tuesday from University of California researchers has found. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/16/20

✅ LAPD Chief Moore points to pandemic as driving factor in increased gun violence, killings -- Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped drive gun violence and increase killings in the city this year, including by spurring economic despair and interpersonal dramas while undercutting efforts to interrupt cycles of retaliation. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/16/20

✅ San Diego legislators want Gov. Newsom to sign high school ethnic studies bill -- San Diego legislators and others are calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would require ethnic studies for high school students, a bill that has sat on his desk for two weeks.... Kristen Taketa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/16/20

✅ Biden campaign manager on Trump's return to rallies: 'People will die' -- Joe Biden’s campaign manager attacked President Donald Trump and his team for the packed rallies they've recently resumed, warning that "people will die" because of the acute risk of coronavirus transmission at the largely maskless events. Caitlin Oprysko Politico -- 9/16/20

✅ QAnon Followers Attack SF's Scott Wiener Over Sex Offender Law -- You might think the claim that California has legalized pedophilia wouldn’t pass the smell test with most people. Not in 2020, when certain Republican politicians have seized on the passage of a law regarding sex offenders as an opportunity to rally QAnon believers, a growing and active group of conspiracy theorists. Rachael Myrow KQED -- 9/15/20

✅ TODAY'S OC Covid numbers: 135 new cases; 6 new deaths.