Determinants of Faculty Support for Student Demonstrations

Abstract

In the spring of 1968, education at Columbia University was disrupted by a massive student sit-in and strike. This paper presents data on how faculty support was influenced by non-professional statuses, which guided the development of faculty opinion as the crisis progressed. Religion, political affiliation, father's occupation, age and sex were all correlated with attitudinal support of the demonstration. The effect of the first three of these non-professional statuses was substantially reduced when we controlled for general political orientation. We conclude that a faculty member's attitude toward student demonstrations is more influenced by his experience before entrance to the profession than by experience after entrance. Nonprofessional statuses tend to be important in influencing behavior on professional issues for which there is little precedence. Conversion of attitudinal into behavioral support was largely dependent on the attitudes of one's faculty colleagues and students in the professor's department and university division. In the absence of social support, less than half of the faculty members acted in accord with their own attitudinal predisposition. STUDENT PROTESTS, STRIKES, and demonstrations rapidly are becoming a normal part of life on college campuses. Although there has been some research on why students become involved in this type of political activity, there has been little or no investigation of the reaction of faculty members to these student demonstrations. The success or failure of these demonstrations and the extent to which they disrupt academic life often depend upon the degree of faculty support they receive. Therefore, the determinants of faculty support form an important area of inquiry. In what ways do faculty members who support demonstrations differ from those of their colleagues who oppose demonstrations? Under what conditions will favorable attitudes toward demonstrations be converted into active support? The study of faculty reaction to student demonstrations is relevant for a more general sociological problem: under what conditions will the attitudes