Inside Higher Ed: Soft Support for Tenure
Americans back the concept of tenure — but they don’t necessarily know what it entails. Americans think highly of professors — except that a substantial minority of Americans doesn’t. Americans don’t rate political bias in the classroom as the top problem in academe today — but many think it’s a serious one.
Those are among the findings of a national survey of public opinion being released today by the American Association of University Professors. The results are a classic case of “is the glass half empty or half full,” with plenty of evidence to show that academe is held in high regard, and plenty of evidence of vulnerabilities in public perceptions. The survey was conducted by an independent polling group and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent. AAUP leaders said that they wanted to measure public attitudes in light of the barrage of criticism from various conservatives that higher education is a center of bias and outrageous views.
The Chronicle: PUBLIC OPINION ON ACADEME
What do Americans see as the most important issue facing higher education? High tuition was identified by many more people than classroom political bias, according to a poll by the American Association of University Professors. But other results from the survey, released on Thursday, won’t make faculty members relax.
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