Should we care that US universities are 'too liberal'?

By Heather Long. America's top universities seem to offer everything except conservative views. That's not healthy for political debate.By and large, you can tell a person's political persuasion in America just by knowing their preferred news sources. Are they a Fox News or Wall Street Journal kind of person? Or a New York Times and MSNBC type? The same distinction is increasingly occurring at US universities. There are "conservative schools", often with religious affiliations or in parts of the country that are solidly right of center, and then there are "liberal ones", often in the northeast, California and major metropolitan areas and often dubbed "elite" schools. Universities don't like to classify themselves politically. Many of the nation's top colleges promote their openness to intellectual debate and varied viewpoints. It's the right ideal, but in practice, it doesn't always play out. Take Princeton University, one of the Ivy League schools. According to an analysis by the university's newspaper, only one faculty member and a janitor donated to Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. The other $169,000 in faculty donations went to President Obama. Read more...