'Does It Bother That Your Faculty Does Not Remotely Represent America?': Glenn Grothman To Georgetown Pres

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At Tuesday's House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) questioned university presidents about ideological balance on campus.

Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Grothman.

00:03Thank you. First of all, just a quick general statement.

00:07This has been talked about the third or fourth, fifth, whatever,

00:11committee hearing dealing with anti-Semitism on American campuses.

00:17The fact that in many campuses, the Jewish students don't feel safe

00:21because of what's going on or not being done on the part of the administration.

00:25I'll point out, we're never going to, we could sit here for years,

00:29we're never going to have a committee hearing on anti-Semitism at the construction site.

00:35We're never going to have one anti-Semitism working in retail

00:38or working in manufacturing or in the military

00:41or anti-Semitism in the retirement home.

00:44This is basically a university problem.

00:48And I think it became a problem because we have such a slanted overall view

00:55of the world and the university compared to the country as a whole.

00:58You know, in an ideal world, I think you'd say that the university faculty represents

01:05a cross-section of the country.

01:08But we all know that's not true.

01:09If we talk to university professors, they'll tell you I was the only person

01:13out of 20 people here who voted for President Trump in my department or whatever.

01:19And, you know, not every state keeps track of, you know, which party you register in.

01:25But in universities that they do keep track or people do studies, the universities are just

01:33overwhelmingly Democrat, which is a breeding ground for this anti-Semitism because right

01:40now, the progressive wing of the Democrat party, not the entire Democrat party, but the progressive wing

01:46of the Democrat party, which kind of drives the train over there, this anti-Israel feeling has

01:52become one of the things along with global warming or racism or whatever that becomes the norm.

02:02I'll ask a couple of you guys, I guess I'll start with Dr. Lyons.

02:08Do you feel your university, ideologically across the board, represents the country as a whole

02:16or even California in disciplines in which there's an ideological component, law school, journalism school, political science?

02:28Does it bother you if it is, you know, the country as a whole right now is about 50-50.

02:35Does it bother you that you do not, that I assume, like most college campuses, your student body

02:41and your faculty, especially your faculty, don't even remotely represent America?

02:50Ideological or political considerations are not conditions for employment at UC Berkeley.

02:58No, the question is, if we were talking about affirmative action and you had 8,000 faculty and five were black,

03:08you would say that's a problem. Now, given that everybody brings a certain ideology to their job,

03:18particularly if you're teaching students, that is a problem if it doesn't represent America.

03:24I mean, I've been doing this for over 20 years, a politician back home in here.

03:29Again and again and again, I hear from college students who can't say what's on their mind in an essay or whatever,

03:37because they know the teacher would give them a bad grade or feel the teacher would give them a bad grade,

03:41if you didn't give the progressive viewpoint of the world.

03:45Does this bother you and do you think this is any of the problem?

03:50We'll ask you, Doctor.

03:52Well, that, your statement about getting a bad grade because of, of.

03:59Does it bother you?

04:00Does it bother you that your, does it bother you that your,

04:04your faculty does not remotely represent America?

04:08It is disproportionately not only Democrat, but progressive Democrat,

04:12which is where this idea that, that anti-Israel is the thing to be come from.

04:18That's where it comes from, the progressive left.

04:20And way disproportionately, your faculty also comes from the progressive left.

04:26That's why these people get away with this and think it's normal.

04:28What bothers me, Congressman, is anything that interrupts a dialogue

04:34across different intellectual positions.

04:36So it doesn't bother you if 95% of your faculty and, in disciplines,

04:41they have an ideological component, are progressive Democrats.

04:45Not if we have a thriving dialogue.

04:46Oh, good. Okay.

04:47Mr. Rodriguez, what do you think about that?

04:49Well, we have about 20,000 faculty members of the City University of New York,

04:54and they are a diverse group of.

04:57Do they represent, do they even remotely represent America as a whole?

05:02I, I, I have no way of knowing that.

05:04You must take an idea.

05:05When you walk around campus and it was a week going into the last election,

05:08were there robust debates in which half the people were for Trump?

05:11Of course not.

05:12It was, you're a very, very skewed faculty,

05:15which is where this whole problem comes from.

05:17Do you, do you feel, do you acknowledge that your faculty does not ideologically.

05:21Mr. Gentleman to finish the question as quickly as possible.

05:24Again, we have a large number of faculty,

05:27and they represent diverse points of view, diverse political views point,

05:32all across the City University of New York.

05:34If I ask you to name.

05:35The gentleman's time has expired.

05:37Thank you for being friendly.

05:39He yields back.

05:40I now recognize the gentle lady from Minnesota, Ms. Omar.

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