I agree that tenure protects the small number of conservatives (at least in the humanities and social sciences) who teach. I also agree that most faculty are left of center, but hardly leftists. The leftists end up dominating many universities not because of their numbers, but their willingness to play hardball–like the attempt at the University of Texas to get any member of the National Association of Scholars removed from tenure committees.
Where I strongly disagree with Professor Jenkins is the claim that conservatives abandoned teaching because of pay. Yes, poor pay is a discouragement. But also seeing that there is no way that a conservative can ever hope to achieve tenure except by pretending to be something else causes some of us to say, “Why bother?” When I was completing my BA in History, my second book had just been published (since cited as authority in a Rhode Island Supreme Court decision), and I had some referred journal articles published (although not in history, but in communications). And yet, there was apparently some argument within the faculty about whether it was proper to add “with distinction” to my degree, because that second book was a scholarly history of how the courts have interpreted the right to keep bear arms provisions of the federal and state constitutions.
