Jon Reisman

Several years ago I was at a Washington County Republican meeting, which has not been a particularly common occurrence. I introduced myself to another attendee, and when he heard that I was a University Professor, the look on his face was one of horror and suspicion. He might as well as reached for some garlic and a crucifix to protect himself. His assumption that I was likely a left wing socialist plant sent to study aliens was not accurate, but would have been for the overwhelming majority of University faculty.

Research has consistently shown that the academy is increasingly tilted to the left. When I started college in 1973, there was some semblance of intellectual and ideological diversity in the American professoriate. Republicans accounted for between a quarter to a third of the faculty. The Humanities were already overwhelmingly left wing, but the sciences and most of the social sciences “looked like America.” No longer. The sciences, poisoned by climate alarmism and requiring  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion loyalty oaths to be hired and win grants, are overwhelmingly on the left, and good luck finding a conservative in any anthropology or sociology Department. Economics remains something of a holdout, but not by much. When I was hired at UMM in 1984, the leading feminist Humanities Professor on campus complained that the Social Science and Business Divisions had hired a conservative from the “right wing” Brown economics program. It did not matter that I was actually a Scoop Jackson moderate/conservative Democrat (think Joe Manchin) at the time. I did not have to sign a loyalty oath, but it was close.

Last time I bothered to check, more than 95% of political contributions from University of Maine System employees went to Democrats. I would be shocked if the number is not trending toward 99%.

University of Maine System leaders, including the Chancellor (former Democratic Governor of Connecticut), Presidents, Provosts and the Board of Trustees (now dominated by Mills appointees) have put the system all in on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The DEI agenda is front and center on job searches and strategic planning. You cannot get hired or participate in planning the future unless you swear allegiance to DEI.  The leaders have been unwilling to precisely define equity (equal outcomes), probably because such a clear definition would bring the Critical Race Theory elements of the DEI agenda into an uncomfortably sharp and politically inadvisable focus.

The University of Maine System has enjoyed bi-partisan voter and legislative support since its inception more than 50 years ago. UMS has steadily drifted leftward, advocating many policies the right, and indeed most of the electorate, does not. Race-based admission and hiring policies have been pursued to promote “diversity,” despite being discriminatory and counterproductive. Gender and sexual identity preferences are already in the mix, albeit carefully masked and hidden. The “anti-racist” equity and inclusion agenda promoted by Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theorists and the left is explicit racism against whites in general and white heterosexual males in particular. It is holy writ for today’s academy and the University of Maine System is no exception.

Republicans have been willing to swallow their concerns and support the University, but I hope and believe that era is coming to well-deserved end. The University of Maine System gets almost 200 million a year from Maine taxpayers, and while many (especially in the Portland area) are certified wokerati who support the academy indoctrinating, as opposed to educating, students, many do not. Republican legislative candidates, especially in the second congressional district (where after redistricting Augusta six of the seven UMS campuses reside) should make clear that continued support will depend on a public University that is color blind, non-partisan, supports equality of opportunity as opposed to outcome, and rejects the role of indoctrinator. I can guarantee you that UMS leadership would be overwhelming hostile to such rhetoric, but to paraphrase James Carville, you’d be surprised what dragging a hundred dollar bill through a University quad will produce.

Effective September 1 2022, Jon Reisman is retiring from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years.  Mr. Reisman’s views are his own and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here, or to him directly via email at [email protected].