The University of Colorado at Boulder is adding a conservative-in-residence to its liberal-leaning faculty in an attempt to broaden intellectual diversity on the state’s flagship campus.
The new position, the “visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy,” is being paid for entirely with private money. A total of close to $1-million will finance the job, set to begin in the fall and to be housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, for at least three years.
Some professors and students are questioning the need for the new role and have criticized the credentials of the finalists. Although two of the three finalists have Ph.D.'s and the third has a master’s, they all are better known for political activism and policy work than for scholarly pursuits.
The finalists, each of whom visited Boulder and gave public speeches on the campus this month, are Linda Chavez, chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity; Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Steven Hayward, a fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University.
The university’s search committee is scheduled to recommend a candidate in the first week of March, said Keith E. Maskus, the panel’s leader and associate dean for social sciences.
The idea for the conservative appointment goes back a decade, Mr. Maskus said, and was originally conceived as an endowed position. When it didn’t get “far off the ground” in terms of support or fund raising, he said, the project was shelved. In 2008, however, the idea was revived and reconfigured, and a group of donors decided to convert the position to a privately financed, visiting role that is off the tenure track.
The position was created, in part, to change the public’s perception of the institution, Mr. Maskus said. Most faculty members present balanced viewpoints in the classroom, he said, but the university has a longstanding history of leaning left. And, he said, having a conservative scholar will help balance the perspectives to which students are exposed.
“We’ve appeared in the newspaper a few times; I’m sure you can think of a few of those headlines,” said Mr. Maskus, hinting at the university’s controversial firing, in 2007, of Ward Churchill, an ethnic-studies professor. The decision, which the university said was based on findings of research misconduct, occurred after Mr. Churchill became the focus of national outrage for a provocative essay he wrote about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which he compared some American victims of terrorism to Nazi bureaucrats.
Breaking the Mold
Some students have reacted positively to the creation of the conservative-scholar position.
They include Zach Silverman, who is president of the College Democrats on the Boulder campus and is a senior majoring in political science. A university should be a marketplace of ideas, he said, and the new visiting position promotes that mission.
“For CU, this breaks the mold of being a liberal college, a biased college,” Mr. Silverman said. “It shows we are interested in all opinions, left or right.”
Mr. Silverman, who is 21, said that his professors try to remain neutral in the classroom but that it can be obvious, particularly in political science, which way they lean politically. In a 2008 survey that included 825 faculty members at Boulder, only 23 were registered Republicans, according to Ed Rozek, a political-science professor who conducted the survey.
Embedding a conservative viewpoint in the classroom will encourage variety, Mr. Silverman said, but only if that person is actually a scholar. “This person needs a doctorate,” he said.
Mr. Maskus, the associate dean, said one quality the search committee sought was a strong record of published books or articles. All of the finalists fit that criterion, he said, though to different degrees. Ms. Chavez is the only finalist without a Ph.D., for example, but she has published three books and has spent more than 40 years in the political arena.
Faculty members, Mr. Maskus said, have expressed concerns both about the scholarly credentials of candidates for the position and about whether the university should be taking donations to make a faculty appointment.
Some of the people whose donations created the position sit on the 10-member search committee, Mr. Maskus said. The committee has five tenured faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences and five “external community” members appointed by the chancellor. Mr. Maskus would not say how many of those people are donors for the new position. He also did not reveal how much money the donors on the committee had collectively contributed to the project.
Mr. Maskus said he does not believe that having donors serve on the search committee and participate in hiring the scholar creates a conflict of interest. The committee is following procedures that were put in place “to avoid such conflicts,” he said.
Other criticism, coming mostly from students, has questioned whether the position is necessary.
In a guest column published in a local newspaper, The Daily Camera, Matthew Aitken, a graduate student in physics, wrote that the creation of the position supports the assumption that all universities lack balance.
“Conservatism—like all other political ideologies—should be considered on its own merits, and no special position need be created for its proponents’ voices to be heard,” Mr. Aitken wrote. “That an esteemed institution like the University of Colorado would give credence to this specious notion of conservative victimhood is disappointing, at best.”
Taking a Risk
Ms. Chavez, a finalist who visited the university last week and gave a presentation titled “A Conservative Approach to Immigration Reform,” said it was obvious that some students did not like the idea of the position. A number of students grilled her with questions after her speech.
“What I find fascinating is that students who disagree with me rarely actually read what I’ve written,” she said. When students hear her point of view, she said, they realize they have some things in common. “We might differ, but our ultimate goals are the same.”
Ms. Chavez, who supports establishing more legal routes for immigrants to attain citizenship, said she thought she handled the students’ questions clearly and respectfully. She said that, if selected, she anticipated opposition like this, as criticism comes with the nature of the role. She said her “broad academic training” had prepared her to respond accordingly.
Mr. Haskins, who gave his presentation on how children are negatively affected by issues like the federal budget deficit and single parenthood, said he was also prepared to stick to his guns.
“Based on media, based on quotes from people on campus, there are people not overly excited about this position,” he said. “Look, I’m conservative, I give speeches on campuses all the time, and I’ve had some direct experiences with people who don’t agree.”
That disagreement is part of what attracted him to apply for the position, he said.
“There are a lot of conservative scholars, but they are a distinct minority on college campuses,” he said. “It’s great to see a university firmly committed to diversity and to exposing students to the alternative.”
Mr. Hayward, who gave a lecture on conservative approaches to environmental policy, said he would not grant interviews about the visiting-scholar job until the search was complete.
Mr. Maskus acknowledged that organizing the position has been a challenge, but he is optimistic about the move.
“I think once the scholar is here, most people will realize the benefit to our undergrads,” Mr. Maskus said. “We’re certainly taking a risk. And we hope it works.”
Correction (2/26/2013, 4:35 p.m.): The photo of Steven Hayward was originally miscredited as having been provided by Mr. Hayward. The correct credit is the American Enterprise Institute, and the text has been corrected.
