Reader Roger Lewis points out two letters in today's Arizona Wildcat wherein students reinforce the "professors is liberal cuz liberals is smarter" meme.

Rational thought makes professors liberal

In response to Jonathan Riches' opinion that college campuses are too liberal, I would like to offer an explanation. I do not disagree with Jonathan's assessment that a majority of college professors lean to the left. However, I have a more plausible explanation for this situation. His claim is that the vast majority of the diverse, independent faculty members at all universities just "chose sides." Jonathan then outlines a comical explanation of how this conspiracy is perpetuated: Only people with highly-partisan views are hired as faculty.

Universities are both highly-educated and extremely well-informed communities. You would not be here if you did not agree with that statement. In my humble opinion, the only thing that keeps a university cohesive is the common value ascribed to rational thought and knowledge. I fully believe that it is these common values that tend to lead people at a university toward the political left.

Ben McMorran
physics graduate student

College professors are brilliant, liberal

Mr. Riches claims that 90 percent of the country's most brilliant people - college professors - are liberals. Why does such a disparity exist? Because they're too educated to be conservative. I'll side with the smart people if I ever have to get off the middle road.

Chris Biagi
atmospheric sciences graduate student

Roger notes, "And to top it off, the liberal faculty down there are WARM smart bastards!" Grrrr.