Though diversity may be a core tenet of universities across the nation today, intellectual diversity at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill is virtually nonexistent, a new report finds.
Zero professors across at least six departments at both public universities are registered Republicans, an analysis from The College Fix finds.
The Chapel Hill study shows no Republican professors teach in the departments of American Studies, Art History, Classics, History, Philosophy, and Studio Art.
The NC State study shows no Republican professors are present in the departments of Communications, Interdisciplinary Studies, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Political Science, Public Administration, Social Work, and Sociology and Anthropology.
Using data from the State Board of Elections website, the study examined every professor’s registered party affiliation in various university departments. To ensure accuracy, names were cross-referenced with public information. While not every professor’s affiliation was identified, some unaffiliated professors were classified based on the party they regularly voted for in a primary election.
Of the 239 professors with identifiable affiliations at Chapel Hill across 11 departments, six are Republicans, while 203 professors identified as Democrats. The data represents about a 34-to-1 Democrat to Republican-ratio. Additionally, 30 were registered as unaffiliated.
Chapel Hill’s history department has at least 50 professors, of which 41 are Democrats and zero are registered Republicans. One Republican professor is in the political science department, compared to 24 Democrats. The findings were similar to 2022 data previously reported, in which several of the same departments at Chapel Hill were absent of any Republican professors.
The report notes that just one Republican professor at Chapel Hill provided comments about the political makeup, though the individual did not want their name attached.
“Administrators at UNC should be concerned that one of their professors (and presumably others) do not feel safe simply sharing that they are Republican or hold conservative views,” said Matt Lamb, author of the article and associate editor at The Fix. “It is particularly concerning that departments like political science and philosophy, where we need a variety of views in order to ensure students grasp important issues at play, had just one Republican total among 70 professors.”
Lamb said it would have been nice if some of the professors he reached out to for comment about why their departments have no Republicans would have at least acknowledged the fact and said they would be interested in investigating the situation further.
A Tuesday report analyzing the affiliations of 204 NC State professors in humanities majors found 158 are registered Democrats while eight are registered Republicans, a 19-to-1 ratio.
Though no professors are registered Republican in the political science department at NC State, Department Chair Michael Struett said he knows at least two professors lean Republican ideologically.
“It is worth pointing out that personal political ideology is generally not at all relevant to how political science research is done, or how one teaches the major arguments in political science,” Struett told The Fix. “All of my colleagues represent a wide variety of types of theoretical perspectives when they teach students how to analyze politics.”
The Fix reports break down both universities’ figures in detail by department.