What's the truth about academe and political leanings? Do colleges really care about political views when considering whether they should hire someone for a faculty position? Is it true that someone who is extremely conservative is at a disadvantage? Let me give you guys a hypothetical scenario.
Let's say Johny is extremely conservative and wants to go into academe. Let's say Johny
1. Gets a BA in Classics from Hillsdale College. Let's also say he does extraordinarily well grade wise, and gets an outstanding GREvscore and great recommendations.
2. Let's say Johny then goes and gets his PhD in Classics from UChicago, Johns Hopkins, or, UVA.
3, Now, let's say that there's a tenure track position in Classics open at a top LAC( Middlebury, Williams, Hamilton, etc)
4. Let's say that Johny is an old-school conservative, and has the same views as Pat Buchanan politically and socially . However, let's say Johny makes it very clear on his application that while he's certainly a conservative Christian, he'd be fine with working with people from diverse backgrounds.
Does Johny get considered by the elite LAC, or do they throw his application in the trash because of his political and social views?