Let’s be honest. Many conservative faculty, including those who are classical liberals, choose to keep their views and their identity hidden. There is good reason to do so: Studies show that self-identified conservative faculty are more likely to face discrimination in hiring, in tenure/promotion, in receiving grants, and in the publication of their work. We understand that there are good, rational, reasons to keep your political views to yourself.
But there are also some very good reasons not to.
We understand that coming out is a difficult choice. To be entirely honest, your relationships with your colleagues may change. You might lose some you thought were friends, others may view you as an oddity or with suspicion, and some will simply dislike you. Still others will view you with antipathy. Others, including some of your liberal colleagues, however, will understand your courage, your contributions, and your truthfulness. They will appreciate you and new, more honest, relationships will eventually emerge.
If you have yet to earn tenure we suggest that you think very clearly before broadcasting your identity. Talk to a trusted friend, to us, or to someone who understands the dynamics of your department and university. If your record is not as strong as you would like, make it stronger. Work harder, reach out to other scholars, and show your value and worth to your department and university. Be a scholar first so that nobody can reasonably question your qualifications.
We hope you join us in our efforts to address the lack of intellectual diversity in our field and to address the biases that affect research, teaching, and hiring in the social sciences. You don’t have to be conservative--just a scholar who values the pursuit of truth without regard to political ideology.
But there are also some very good reasons not to.
- Let’s start with being true to yourself. There is great relief to being true to who you are. You don’t have to project a public image that is at odds with who you are nor do you have to put in any emotional effort to modulate your views. Be true to yourself, said Shakespeare, so no man can call you false.
- The academy needs you. The academy needs the voices of dissent, the voices that emphasize tradition, the voices that emphasize freedom and liberty and responsibility. As we have too often seen, the absence of dissent has allowed leftist faculty and administrators to enjoy unconstrained power--power they have used for their favorite leftist causes. Many faculty in the social sciences and humanities do not know any conservatives and assume, correctly, that everyone else on campus agrees with them. This power differential needs balanced and you are just the person to help.
- Your students need you. There are many conservative students who go through their programs without mentorship, who are forced to keep their views to themselves, and who are isolated. You have the opportunity to reach students who need help and who often feel marginalized and out of place. Too many of these students never enter the academy and those who do face obstacles that impede their intellectual development. You can help to train the next batch of conservative intellectuals and scientists.
- But conservative students are not the only students you can help. Liberal students, especially, need you. Their views have been systematically affirmed for years. Your voice can be a strong corrective--one that shows students how to be more objective, more scientific, and more tolerant. If you believe like we do that learning comes from exposure to competing ideas, to an adherence to data and fact, and that education is about the pursuit of truth then you will understand what we mean when we say that nobody is in more need than our liberal students.
- The discipline needs you. There is an unhealthy degree of agreement in the discipline about the causes of crime and the control of crime. Yours can be a voice that helps to restore balance to the discipline, one that encourages real debate about important issues, and one that adds to the body of scientific knowledge. You can help neutralize the liberal biases that flow through the research process and that frame many of the important issues we examine. There is room in academia and in criminology for a new voice--one that doesn’t simply tow the party line.
We understand that coming out is a difficult choice. To be entirely honest, your relationships with your colleagues may change. You might lose some you thought were friends, others may view you as an oddity or with suspicion, and some will simply dislike you. Still others will view you with antipathy. Others, including some of your liberal colleagues, however, will understand your courage, your contributions, and your truthfulness. They will appreciate you and new, more honest, relationships will eventually emerge.
If you have yet to earn tenure we suggest that you think very clearly before broadcasting your identity. Talk to a trusted friend, to us, or to someone who understands the dynamics of your department and university. If your record is not as strong as you would like, make it stronger. Work harder, reach out to other scholars, and show your value and worth to your department and university. Be a scholar first so that nobody can reasonably question your qualifications.
We hope you join us in our efforts to address the lack of intellectual diversity in our field and to address the biases that affect research, teaching, and hiring in the social sciences. You don’t have to be conservative--just a scholar who values the pursuit of truth without regard to political ideology.