Executive Summary
This survey of tenure-track and tenured faculty at UW–Madison examines the ideological composition of the faculty, attitudes toward hiring, perceptions of campus climate, and experiences with expressing controversial opinions.
Ideological Composition
UW–Madison faculty are substantially more liberal than both the general American public and Americans with doctoral degrees. Seven in ten faculty identify as some form of liberal, while fewer than one in ten identify as conservative. This imbalance is present across all academic fields, though it varies in degree, with the Humanities showing the highest concentration of liberal faculty. Economics-related fields stand out as having more ideological diversity than other social sciences, though they still lean liberal overall. Junior faculty are more liberal than senior faculty, raising the possibility that the imbalance may increase over time. Notably, faculty of color are not more liberal than white faculty—and Asian faculty are significantly more likely to identify as conservative—indicating that efforts to advance racial diversity and viewpoint diversity need not be in tension.
Hiring
Using a randomized survey experiment, the study finds that significant minorities of faculty would be less likely to hire a candidate who expressed a conservative view on topics such as immigration, abortion, affirmative action, or transgender sports participation. Because respondents were randomly assigned to evaluate either a liberal or conservative statement, these differences cannot be attributed to a general aversion to candidates expressing political opinions. The asymmetry specifically reflects less favorable treatment of conservative viewpoints, with differences ranging from 11 to 38 percentage points depending on the topic.
Consequences for Expression
While liberal faculty are more likely to express controversial views, conservative faculty who do express views report experiencing institutional consequences—such as warnings from administrators—at substantially higher rates than liberal faculty who express views.