Odds of political contribution from a UW-Madison humanities or social science prof going to Republican: 1 in 530
And when it comes to faculty in social sciences and the humanities, where professors’ viewpoints on politics and culture have more of a bearing on the lectures than fields like engineering, the odds of finding a Republican donor fall to just 1 in 530.
The numbers back-up in stark terms comments Owens made in a recent interview with the Badger Institute in which he discussed the skewed ideological climate at the Badger state’s flagship university and said the atmosphere is full of an omnipresent “left-wing, dogmatic orthodoxy.”
Owens substantiated this with another staggering statistic in that interview: over 99% of political dollars contributed by UW faculty went to Democrats and left-wing groups over the past decade.
The pair looked at data from the Federal Election Commission on contributions to candidates or PACs between 2011 and 2022. Their study looked at all UW faculty, excluding medical school donations.
Owens’ and Tahk’s study has its limitations. It might be the case that conservative professors are less likely to make political donations, given that the records are publicly accessible, in which case the count of Republican versus Democrat donors would underestimate the true ratio of conservatives to progressives among the faculty.
