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by Michael Gendall
Friday, September 16, 2005
The Minneapolis-based Center of the American Experiment announced the launch of a new website Tuesday pledging to bring "intellectual diversity" in the form of free-market conservative ideas to college campuses across Minnesota.
American Experiment Communications Director Randy Wanke described his organization as a "free-market conservative think tank."
Wanke said the website, IntellectualTakeout.com, is designed not to indoctrinate students to the conservative point of view, but to bring those views to campuses and hopefully "stir up debate" of political thought that might otherwise be neglected.
"It's something that we're starting here in Minnesota, but it's something that can be used by college students across the country," he said, adding he is confident the website will increase intellectual diversity on a number of campuses.
According to Wanke, intellectual diversity does not exist on college campuses because most professors are liberal and, as a result, the liberal ideology is favored.
"A recent study showed 72 percent identified themselves as being liberal, while only about 15 percent identified themselves as being conservative," Wanke said.
University of Wisconsin political science professor Kenneth Mayer said IntellectualTakeout.com sounds like a number of movements attempting to prompt greater intellectual diversity on college campuses, and added that he considers Wanke's point a fair one.
"I think you can make the case that universities are pretty left of center," Mayer said. "Faculty members specifically in social-science departments tend to be Democratic, even though that data's not perfect."
Mayer added the general perception is that a lot of universities lack a strong element of "ideological diversity" and, though it's not going to be absolutely uniform, the liberal side of the spectrum does tend to dominate.
When asked why university professors typically lean to the political left, Wanke confessed he did not know for sure, but referenced a "cultural shift in the '60s" in an attempt to explain the current college climate.
According to Wanke, some people on the left will argue conservatives "just don't get into academia" and acknowledged there may be some truth to that, adding that the students who led the charge from the left in the 1960s are now the people teaching college courses and running administrations at universities across the nation.
"Students [in the '60s who] were taking over the presidents' offices are now the people residing in the presidents' offices," Wanke joked.
On a more serious note, Wanke said he hopes the new website will give college students fair opportunity to consider conservative ideology and the support they sometimes need to articulate their views.
"A student may be in a classroom at a university where [he's] being presented one point of view [and is] unaware that a different perspective is out there," he said. "Or they may be aware but are afraid to articulate it."
