Cornell Faculty Donates to Dems

Cornell University’s faculty has donated almost $600,000 to political candidates in the past four years, with over 96 percent of it going to Democrats running for office, according to The Cornell Daily Sun. Only 15 of the 323 donors contributed money to conservative causes.

Out-of-state tuition at the Ithaca, New York-based university is approximately $65,494. In-state-tuition runs $49,354, according to its website. The estimate includes housing, dining hall, books and supplies, and “miscellaneous.”

For that amount, parents can expect their student to receive an educational experience skewed heavily to the left, no matter what future he or she is preparing for.

Richard Bensel, who teaches in Cornell’s government department, said while he would support adding a conservative to the department, he does not believe the university is obligated to offer students every point of view.

“Our job is not to mold the minds of young students – they’ll go out into the world and do that for themselves,” Bensel told the Cornell Daily Sun, the university’s independent newspaper. “Cornell does not have to be a banquet that offers every viewpoint.”

Parents may find this a revelation. If their kids’ minds are to be molded by the world, maybe they should just forgo college and get right to it, without the hefty college price tag.

From 2011 to 2014, Cornell’s faculty donated $573,659 to Democrats, $16,360 to Republicans and $2,950 to independents. 

In the Daily Sun’s analysis of data obtained from the Federal Election Committee, it found that from 2011 to 2014, Cornell’s faculty donated $573,659 to Democrats, $16,360 to Republicans and $2,950 to independents. Each of Cornell’s 13 schools, including both graduate and undergraduate levels, skewed heavily to the left in terms of donations.

In the College of Arts and Sciences, 99 percent of the $183,644 donated went to liberal campaigns. The strongest conservative showing was in the law school, with almost 26 percent of its approximately $20,000 in donations going to Republicans.

Almost one-third of donations made during the past four years went to 2012 presidential campaigns, with more than 94 percent of the $200,000 Cornell faculty and staff contributed to the presidential race going to the Obama Victory Fund. The Romney Victory Fund received under 4 percent.

Some Cornell professors asserted that Republicans often have ideas they call “anti-science” or “anti-intellectual,” traits that top-tier universities fight to stay away from.

“It is not surprising that faculty at Cornell find the anti-scientific rhetoric of many in the Republican Party to be troublesome,” Kenneth McClane, a professor in the English Department, told the Daily Sun. “Many of us here are scientists — we believe in global warming, since we believe what the research tells us.”

Bensel backed up his ivy-covered colleague, saying, “I think many mainstream Republicans have views that are anti-intellectual and anti-science,” he said.

“There are candidates who are creationists, don’t believe in climate change and claim that Obama’s a Muslim. Ted Cruz, for example, should not teach here,” Bensel said.

Student David Navadeh, class of 2019, told the Daily Sun that he was in a nutrition class in which his professor regularly featured announcements from various clubs before class began. One day, he said, the professor announced a Planned Parenthood rally and spent substantially more time than usual encouraging his students to attend. The rally was not held in conjunction with any campus club.

“He was very clear what his personal leanings were, and he made it very clear that we should stand with Planned Parenthood as well,” said Navadeh. “I certainly respect their right to protest, and I respect the other view.

“The irony just kind of strikes me, though,” he said. “If a conservative professor were to say that you should go to a defund Planned Parenthood rally, and was saying what a good job folks like Ted Cruz are doing in making sure that happens — if someone were to put forth the idea that abortion is indeed murder — I can just imagine the outcry.”

In an industrial and labor relations economics class, the professor abruptly decreed that free-market principles are ineffective.

Student Austin McLaughlin, class of 2018, recounted a time when, in an industrial and labor relations economics class, the professor abruptly decreed that free-market principles are ineffective.

The professor’s lecturn, apparently, doubled as a soapbox.

“We were largely focused on financial crises and after we finished the 2008 crisis the next slide said, ‘and that is why deregulation and free market economics do not work,’” he told the Daily Sun. “So I asked him, ‘Isn’t it too early to say that this is the case?’ And he says, ‘No, it’s not too early, it’s too late.’”

If you want balance in your education at Cornell, you must seek it out, because it’s not going to be offered.

Cornell Republicans Chairman Mark LaPointe said he deliberately took microeconomics with a professor who he knew was fiscally conservative, and he made it clear that conservative professors at Cornell are highly respected and “(their presence) is definitely good for the campus.”

Even if they are as rare a sighting as a dodo bird.

John Carberry, senior director of media relations at Cornell, told the Daily Sun that political affiliation is “not a condition (the university) weighs when hiring or working with faculty.”

Or any shred of balance — and it doesn’t take a college degree to figure that one out.