Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) said Tuesday at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism that the lack of ideological diversity on university faculties led to the recent, ongoing outbreak of antisemitism: “It’s due to illiberalism,” he said.
Wilson spoke during a full committee hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which hosted Harvard president Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) speaks to a crowd at Sen. Lindsey Graham’s election night watch party on November 3, 2020 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford via Getty Images)
He asked each of the presidents of the universities how many conservative professors were on their faculty. Each declined to answer, saying that they did not keep statistics on ideological views, though they each claimed to be open to conservatives.
Last year, more than 80% of respondents to a survey of faculty at Harvard University described themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal.”
“Only 1 percent of respondents stated they are ‘conservative,’ and no respondents identified as ‘very conservative,'” the Harvard Crimson reported.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), citing the survey above, asked Gay whether she thought the lack of ideological diversity had led to antisemitism on campus.
“We strive to have as diverse a faculty as we can,” Gay claimed.
“If there’s one thing you are, it’s not diverse,” he replied. “Do you consider that a problem?”
Gay claimed, again: “We try to create as much space as possible for a wide range of views and perspectives, because we believe that allows for a thriving academic community.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
