perspectives and avoid discussion of their own political views. Yet, we do not know to what
extent students pick up cues that reveal their professors’ true political orientations. If students
cannot ascertain the political leanings of their professors, than we might conclude that professors
are capable of maintaining professional neutrality. This, in turn, would partly undermine
assertions that students are politically influenced by their professors.
The second question centers on whether shifts in a student’s partisan affiliation correlate
with the professor’s admitted political orientation. Some recent analysis suggests that, over the
course of four years, students’ political orientations do not change that dramatically (Hewitt and
Mariani, 2008). However, the researchers do observe some movement among students, with an 8
percentage point gain on the left side of the scale, but they conclude that this shift is not dramatic
enough to justify claims of widespread indoctrination. While this seems to be a reasonable
conclusion, it is possible that the little movement the authors do observe in the aggregate occurs
primarily among certain groups of students. For example, political science students may, as a
result of having frequent political discussions with their professors, be more susceptible to
influence, whereas accounting students may be completely immune from such influence.
Examined more precisely, we might see evidence of significant movement in certain disciplines.
We believe that, if professors’ politics do influence students’ opinions, it is most likely to occur
in those settings where political issues are frequently discussed. Thus, our analysis examines
shifts in individual students’ partisan leanings over the course of one semester, during which
they are enrolled in a political science course.
3
Convention