I teach at a public institution of learning. I make roughly half what I would if I were to take a job in the private sector. I tend to value things much more than money, and believe that privatized education is bad, as do most of my colleagues.

It seems like a pretty simple calculus. If I am on the right, and I am bright, I am much more likely to go into business.

I don’t see any good reason to have proportionate representation of political beleifs in education any more than I do cultural beliefs. I bet there are far fewer pro-wrestling fans than there are in the population as well, and I’m OK with that. I’m also OK with the fact that (and no, I have no evidence of this but would be very surprised if I were wrong) there tends to be a conservative monoculture in the financial industry.

Finally, I urge you to consider that if the proportion of those on the left is different in universities and in the general population, perhaps it is not the university that needs changing. How many Americans think that evolution is “just a theory” with no basis in fact? While knowledge is never a one-way street, it seems clear to me that our job in the academy is to get people to think, and that is always a radical (and not little “c” conservative) idea.