(The Center Square) – The latest Vanderbilt Unity Poll reveals that people want college and university professors to remain neutral on politics and for state lawmakers not to dictate what they teach.
The survey, conducted Nov. 7-10, questioned 1,033 U.S. adults, according to a news release from the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, a nonpartisan initiative.
Thirty-eight percent of those polled said universities should be strictly neutral on all politics and social issues, while 34% said they should speak only on issues that affect education and research. When it comes to universities engaging in what the poll called “public and political debates that affect society,” 28% said that universities should.
Lawmakers should stay out of college curricula, the respondents said. Sixty-six percent said that state legislatures should not control what is taught about U.S. history, 70% said they should not govern the teaching of evolution, and 74% said lawmakers should not wade into curriculum decisions about gender or sexual orientation. The government should not tell professors what to teach, 65% of those polled said.
“Overwhelmingly, people want politics kept out of the classroom,” said Vanderbilt Poll codirector Josh Clinton, the the Abby and Jon Winkelried Chairman at Vanderbilt and a professor of political science. “They don’t want professors using the classroom to push political views, and they don’t want politicians trying to dictate what happens in higher education. People want education to be about education.”
Respondents overwhelmingly said that the most important thing a student should get from college is the ability to think more logically. In contrast, 77% said moral growth is the most or very important.
“One of the clearest findings is that the public wants colleges to get back to basics,” said John Geer, codirector of the Vanderbilt Unity Poll and professor of political science. “When you ask about the core purposes of a college education, you see almost no political polarization. That is, progressives and MAGAites agree – a rare thing these days.”
Research indicates that Americans had the same views in the 1940s, according to Vanderbilt. A 1945 Roper/Fortune survey showed that 63% said the government should not tell a professor how to teach. Sixty-five percent of respondents to a 1949 survey said that colleges should present both sides for capitalism and socialism.
“Many observers think current debates about the nature of higher education are relatively new but they are not,” Geer said. “The country, for example, was debating the purpose, value and direction of higher education in the 1940s when the federal government made major investments in research and teaching during and after World War II.”
The majority of respondents, 62%, said a college degree is “worth it” and help students get a better job, according to the news release. But only 53% believe that it is “worth it” when the financial investment is considered.
