That’s not exactly a cross-section of America’s college students. After all, while college faculty may be overwhelmingly left-leaning, the same isn’t true of the broader student population.
In fact, Truman’s leadership has doubled down on its intransigence by scrubbing the bios of past winners from its website, ensuring that no one can replicate the AEI study. Indeed, past press releases of winners are now password-protected. One can view them only via a Truman scholar account. And the program didn’t issue biographies for this year’s winners, either, instead just listing name, major, and degree aspirations. An information lockdown is certainly one response to the problem. Rather than addressing ideological bias, it is easier to hide the evidence. But this isn’t a good solution for the nation, as opacity seems better suited to a felonious enterprise than a taxpayer-funded scholarship.
Right-leaning students and faculty tell me that the deck is stacked and there’s no point wasting their time.What’s going on? Well, right-leaning students and the handful of conservative faculty tell me that they’ve concluded that the deck is stacked and there’s no point wasting their time. Meanwhile, left-leaning faculty are used to mentoring applicants and have had good experiences. And, of course, program announcements and information sessions tend to send clear (if unintentional) signals about the kinds of interests and research deemed promising.
As a recent Truman finalist told me, “When I interviewed for the scholarship (over Zoom), I was asked a number of politically pointed questions by the committee, including whether I, as a conservative, would condemn Donald Trump.” When he shared his experience with the director of his university’s honors college, he was told not to worry because “students like you don’t usually win the Truman.”
