<p>IntDad wrote:
[quote]
Makes for a nice soundbyte. But, can you cite one single example of a professor being asked his or her political party affiliation before being hired?
[/quote]
Your attempt to belittle the comment from fundingfather by labeling it a soundbite is acknowledged. Your question is irrelevant, and as the learned professor you quoted put it, "unsophisticated." Swarthmore is so far left overall that faculty and students self-select--at least that's what their tour guide told us when we visited :(. They don't ask questions like that because they don't HAVE to ask; they wouldn't invite anyone to interview who didn't ascribe to the latest "deconstructionist" theory. Exactly as newmassdad pointed out.</p>
<p>To get back to the point of the thread, the idea of a litmus test of this sort for faculty is absolutely repulsive, and as I see it, counterproductive. It would only serve to alienate people by insisting we all ascribe to the primacy of the group identity, instead of the primacy of the individual. It sounds to me somewhat like the Spanish Inquisition, when the torture victims had to guess at what the correct answer might be. "Astronomy: How do you intend to address the implications of the Big Bang theory on the extended Hispanic family? Physics: Do you intend to be sensitive to the modern feminist thought that Einstein stole all his work from his wife? Chemistry: Don't you think it might be possible that Mendeleev was gay? How would this affect the order of the elements, and their propensities to combine with each other? Art History: Is it possible that Titian was a Wiccan hater, given the number of "lost souls" and demons in his paintings? How could we consider this to be great Art (with a capital A)?"</p>
<p>IMO, the ultimate outcome will be that colleges and universities which continue to promote this stuff will find their academic standing and appeal to students decrease proportionately. At least I hope so.</p>