The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a recent study of university faculty:

A report released on Wednesday on the political views of faculty members accuses professors of liberal “groupthink,” a stance that the report says puts them at odds with the beliefs of most Americans on national and international issues.

The report, by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, was based on an online, nationally representative survey of 1,259 professors at four-year colleges and universities in the spring of 2005. It found that, in general, professors are critical of American business and foreign policy and are skeptical of capitalism.

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Professors, says the report, are at the “forefront of the political divide” over U.S. foreign policy that has developed since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Faculty members have “aligned themselves in direct opposition to the political philosophy of the conservative base voting for the prevailing political power” in America, it says. Unlike most Americans, it adds, faculty members “blame America for world problems” and regard U.S. policies as “suspect.”

The report labels the faculty’s overall stance as liberal “groupthink,” and says it is dangerous because faculty members “are supposed to provide a broad range of ... approaches to addressing problems in American society and around the world.” Professors are role models for students and frequently are called upon to act as “pundits” by the media and as experts on foreign policy, it adds.

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“The fact that there are more liberals than conservatives on campus is not the key issue,” Gary A. Tobin, president of the institute, said during a teleconference on Wednesday. “We argue that were the political ideology reversed — that three of every four identified themselves as conservatives rather than liberals — the problem would be exactly the same. The presence of a dominant ideology has the potential to interfere with unbiased, honest, and creative scholarship and teaching.”