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alone. It also might enlighten the public to see that these are not just
hotbeds of looniness.
Marjorie Iseman:
We'd have to see that it was published.
AI Shanker:
It would be a very newsworthy item.
Roger Kimball:
How much would that cost?
AI Shanker:
Oh, it costs about thirty five thousand dollars to do a poll.
A
national poll would cost more.
Abigail Thernstrom:
Do you have any age breakdown?
AI Shanker:
Yes. I'll send you a copy.
Jean Elshtain:
Are they young?
AI Shanker:
No, it's a representative group. But there were differences
by age, which you may want to look at and see.
Heather MacDonald:
But if it's generational, given that today's stu–
dents are tomorrow's scholars, [ don't see how you have confidence in a
rebirth of non- politicized scholarship.
Abigail Thernstrom:
There are shifts in our culture. You're implying
that you've got something cast in stone here, that generations of people
are listening to faculty members delivering a certain message. It doesn't
work that way.
Heather MacDonald:
Because young people aren't listening? In fact,
those who are listening are the ones who are motivated by the political
message, and so they will represent, it seems to me, the university for
several generations down the line.
Arthur Schlesinger:
But impulses run their course . After a time people
change their views.
Edith Kurzweil:
I also think that we tend to generalize to our own
situations, to where we happen to be, whether or not we're teaching. I
became aware of that when, after the publication of the
Partisan Review
issue on "The Changing Culture of the University," I went on about a
dozen radio shows in various parts of the country. I received the most
