College faculties and administrations have continually ranked among the top contributors to presidential campaigns in the nation, and this year their presence is stronger than ever. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that educators donated $6.2 million to the presidential campaigns of the 2008 election season as of Dec. 21. Educators at Boston College, however, do not make the list of universities with the highest number of donors for the 2008 election. According to Campaignmoney.com, the BC faculty who are donating to this year's race are supporting the Democrats almost exclusively, with Barack Obama as the clear favorite.
Most BC faculty whose donations were made public gave between $500 and $2,000, according to Campaignmoney.com. A significant number of these donations came from professors at BC Law School, while others were from undergraduate professors.
An article on Capitaleye.org said that the field of education tends to support Democrats, with 67 percent of donations made for the 2008 race supporting the left side. This bias is common in academia, where a notable amount of professors are liberal.
Dr. Donald Fishman, a politically active professor in the communications department, said he believes that BC's professors are also politically active, but simply don't have a lot of extra money. He said that within the BC community, there are more Democratic teachers than Republicans, true to the national trend.
Marc Landy, a professor in the political science department, also understands the appeal of the Democratic Party, but thinks it can be limiting at times.
"I do not at all fault academics for being liberal, but I do fault them for equating liberalism with opposition to sensible efforts to protect the nation against the very serious threat from Islamic extremist terrorism. As Senator Joe Lieberman personifies, there is no inherent conflict between favoring many liberal policies and adopting sensible positions on foreign policy," Landy said.
Although he is not involved in any campaigns, Landy supports McCain for "his fine character and his sound foreign policy."
The fact that BC's faculty tends to swing liberal has not affected students.
"I've noticed that professors lean toward the liberal side since I came to BC, but I think they're fair about their political views," said Michael Sinacore, president of the College Republicans and A&S '08.
The University of California currently tops the list of 2008 presidential election donors, putting $491,418 in the pockets of candidates as of Jan. 7, according to a report from the Center for Responsive Politics. Of these contributions, 90 percent went to Democratic candidates and only 10 percent to the Republicans. University of California donors were followed by other well-known institutions such as Harvard, Columbia University, Stanford University, and Georgetown University.
"At Harvard, and many of the other Ivies, there are wealthier faculties who can afford to give," Fishman said. He also noted that at a university such as BC, with no medical or engineering schools, there is less likely to be an abundance of affluent faculty.
At most of these schools, an overwhelming majority, usually around 80 percent, favor Democratic candidates. Harvard's top choice was Obama, who received his law degree there in 1991. Many faculty at New York institutions gave to the campaign of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani before he bowed out of the race.
Despite hometown ties, Mitt Romney has not been widely supported at BC. He is, however, the third overall choice and top Republican choice for educators, notably at Harvard, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
A Jan. 16 article in The Daily Trojan, the University of Southern California's student newspaper, also discusses the liberal bias in education today.
Anthony Kammas, a political science professor at USC, worries about the effect such an evident bias will have on a university.
"It worries me that there's this much weight on one side. They're basically casting a vote with their dollars against Republicans," Kammas told reporters.
Judy Muller, a journalism professor at USC, responded to such concerns: "I don't proselytize my politics in class at all, ever. That's not how I teach. I'm not at all surprised that that's where the money comes from because you're looking at people who debate these issues for a living," she told reporters.
Many professors, whether donating to Democrats or Republicans, simply understand the importance of the political process, according to capitaleye.org. Fishman also added that he donates out of personal local political experience.
"It's very expensive to run a campaign, even at the local level, so I like to donate because I understand how hard it is," Fishman said.
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