anti-conservative bias in academia

(This post really belongs in a Slate board dedicated to education,
but there doesn't seem to be any such
so it's being posted in botf.)

John Tierney, in the 11-18 NYT, published an article
Republicans Outnumbered in Academia
of especial interest.

Here are some excerpts,
with attributions or my comments in square brackets:

"[C]onservative students are discouraged from pursuing scholarly careers,
because they see very clearly that their professors consider Republicans to be the enemy."
[David Horowitz]

"Our colleges have become less marketplaces of ideas
than churches in which
you have to be a true believer to get a seat in the pews,"
said Stephen H. Balch, a Republican and the president
of the National Association of Scholars.
"We've drifted to a secular version of 19th-century denominational colleges, in which the university's mission is to crusade against sin
and make the country a morally better place."

"Screened out, expelled or self-sorted, they [nonleftists] tend to land outside of academia because the crucial decisions - awarding tenure and promotions, choosing which papers get published - are made by colleagues hostile to their political views,"
[Daniel Klein, an associate professor of economics at Santa Clara University and a co-author of the study.]

"I'm really having a hard time finding courses my last year.
I don't want to spend another semester
listening to lectures about victims of American oppression."
[Kelly Coyne, a senior at UC Berkeley
and editor of a conservative magazine there.]

Robert J. Birgeneau, the chancellor of Berkeley, said that he was not sure if the new study of his faculty accurately reflected the professors' political leanings, and that these leanings were irrelevant anyway.

"The essence of a great university is developing and sharing new knowledge as well as questioning old dogma," Dr. Birgeneau said.

[Birgeneau's statement, intended to protect his faculty
from a charge of bias,
only shows his own bias.
Recall the definition of university,
as found, e.g., in the OED:

The whole body of teachers and scholars engaged, at a particular place, in giving and receiving instruction in the higher branches of learning.

Of course development of new knowledge (research)
is a part of research universities.
But the prime mission of a university
must be to maintain and pass on old knowledge.
Note that this is a function that the UCB chancellor
doesn't even mention!
There could be no clearer example of
his misshapen view of his own universities function,
highly biased to the left.
What hope do conservatives have in that university,
when the chancellor himself is so biased?]