Most N.C. State students do not feel that professors are teaching courses with bias or overt political preferences, according to a new study in the Pack Poll, an independent survey project out of the political science department.

The poll asked freshmen, juniors and graduate students whether they felt the political bias of faculty was present in the classroom. Pack Poll Advisor, Michael Cobb, an associate professor of public and international affairs, said the poll chose this question in response to the common right-wing criticism that professors are pushing liberal agendas in academia. The poll asked two variations of the same question to compensate for any bias in question wording, but what it found were similar and “unsurprising” results, according to Cobb.

When asked “Do you think N.C. State courses are taught from a politically biased perspective?” 62 percent of students who responded said no, 20 percent said yes and 18 percent did express an opinion. Students who responded to the alternate question, “Do you think N.C. State faculty are politically biased in the classroom?” the results were nearly the same ―61 percent no, 24 percent yes and 15 percent answered without an opinion.

“The meat of the issue comes down to the fact that even though many faculty members identify themselves as liberal, that doesn’t mean their personal views are represented in the classroom, and students know that,” Cobb said.

Though the main goal of the survey was to judge whether students were “trusting of faculty,” it also asked students whether they felt any political bias expressed by faculty had the ability to change students’ beliefs. About half (47 percent) of the students who answered that they had seen bias in the classroom said they felt professors had the ability to change the beliefs of students. Similarly, 41 percent of the students who answered that they had not seen bias in their courses said the political opinions of faculty members could alter students’ views. 

“What students seem to have a problem with most is when a professor states something as ‘fact,’” Cobb said. “Some student don’t like to be told what to think, but when it comes down to it, it’s often an 18-year-old kid against a professor with a Ph.D.”

According to Cobb, there was not much variation in answers between the different age groups polled in the survey.