A 2006 study by Gross and Simmons found that 68.2 percent of 1000 Americans surveyed believe that academia favors professors with liberal social and political views. Of this same sample, 37.5 percent claimed that political bias in the classroom is a very serious problem. This apparently common public perception is being used by partisan organizations to push for legislation which calls for “intellectual diversity.” While intellectual diversity may use the same vocabulary as the more progressive movement it is modeled after, it would almost certainly not have the same positive educational outcomes.

Intellectual diversity legislation has generally emphasized principles such as the “pursuit of truth” or “discovery of new knowledge.” Its purported goal is to protect students from the imposition of orthodoxy of a religious, political, or ideological nature by means of the purposeful advancement of a pluralistic campus environment. Such legislation often calls for additional government oversight or stronger protection of students’ rights. Pushed by groups such as the Horowitz Freedom Center, intellectual diversity legislation, according to the American Association of University Professors, has been proposed in 22 states. As recently as 2007 the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act passed the Missouri House of Representatives. The bill, named for a Missouri State University student who sued that institution in 2006 claiming she was retaliated against after she refused to support gay adoption as part of a class project, would require state universities to annually report to the state Legislature the steps they take to ensure the free exchange of ideas.

The intellectual diversity movement is also taking place among students themselves. Web sites such as “StudentsForAcademicfreedom.org” and “NoIndoctrination.org” solicit students to report experiences that they perceive as political bias in the classroom and post them in online forums on these sites. These reports are then used as support for the idea that a politically one-sided academia is working to indoctrinate students into holding liberal values.