Bob Maranto, a University of Arkansas professor in the Department of Education Reform, argues in a piece published in the Chronicle of Higher Education that conservatives' concern about university students being swayed toward liberal viewpoints is overblown.

Maranto, who holds the Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Leadership, is working on a book on the topic with his co-author on the article, Matthew Woessner, associate professor of political science at Penn State Harrisburg. Their piece in the Chronicle was published online July 31 and in print as the lead article Sept. 15.

Recent high-profile events covered by the mainstream media in which students disrupted conservative speakers at Middlebury College, the University of California at Berkeley and other places have some people saying the "left's dominance of academe is so widespread and powerful that it leads to leftist indoctrination or conservative alienation."

Maranto and Woessner conclude that, while higher education's ideological imbalance has potentially serious consequences for society, "a closer look reveals an ecosystem that is, in some respects, more diverse than appearances suggest."