[PRL] The latest from Joel

[Matthias Felleisen]

On Jan 3, 2006, at 9:35 AM, William D Clinger wrote:

>> Or, "it is a demographic fact that we would almost double the size
>> of our faculty applicant pool if Republicans [men or women] were as
>> interested in academic positions as Democrats are."
>>
>> They are all equally true and silly. -- Matthias
>
> Are you suggesting that Republicans have as little interest
> in academic positions as women have in CS?

There are two surveys (dated last year, possibly 2004) that
studied the question from two different angles: self identification
and publicly countable donations to parties/races. According to
those, between 8 and 13% of faculty members are "Republican" (for
some value of this word) and way over 80% are "Democratic" (for
some value of that). These are "facts".

As for the "why", I don't claim to know. The interpretations I
read speculate about all kinds of stuff, ranging from active
"discrimination" esp in humanities and social science to passive
exclusion in sciences and engineering.

In research labs (I guess mostly science/engineering), the shares
of R/I/D is claimed to reflect those of the general population.

Go figure -- Matthias

P.S. I would be as (un)happy with a 100% female enrollment in
CS1 as with a 100% Republican faculty. Just to set this
straight.