By Zachary Boutin

Many Americans have long clung to the notion that political bias and the the college classroom are an inseparable pair.

In July 2007, 58 percent of adults said they think there is a “serious problem” with liberal bias among college professors, in a poll conducted by Zogby International, a public opinion polling group.

But a trio of George Mason University professors, are challenging the concept.

In the book “Closed Minds? Politics and Ideology in American Universities,” authors Bruce L.R. Smith, Jeremy Mayer and A. Lee Fritschler flip the argument on its head. They said there’s no liberal or conservative bias, but instead an anti-political one.

Most professors “find ways to avoid thinking seriously about politics and political issues,” according to a passage in the book.

To them, the days of the 1960s university, where vibrant political debate and emphases on civic values ruled, have evaporated. Instead, colleges now operate in a hushed political environment that focuses on vocationalism, according to the book.

Mayer, associate professor of public policy at George Mason University, said in an interview with The News that national academic rankings are a cause for this shift. The average college administrator worries that opening up about political and civic issues could create a public relations backlash, so for the most part professors are told to keep quiet, he said.

Lee Fritschler, professor of public policy at George Mason University, said in an interview with The News that a university is failing in its main purpose to educate if it doesn’t encourage discussion and debate on public issues. He said, however, such open dialogue is rare on most campuses.

However, politics is not absent completely from student life. Harvard political polls revealed that the 2004 presidential election boasted a 74 percent student voter turnout, the highest percentage since 1972. The same polls also found that 68 percent of students said they closely followed national politics.

William Kirtz, associate professor of journalism, said he places confidence in the ability of the students to choose for themselves.

“My sense is that students are politically independent,” he said, adding that colleges in general have become less politically vocal during the past few decades.

With the 2008 presidential election in about a week, some students said they don’t need a professor to tell them how to think.

Kelly Rosencrans, a junior international affairs and environmental studies major, said she doesn’t think the classroom is the place for political disertations

“The responsibility of a university is to educate,” she said.

Rosencrans also said students should naturally understand civic responsibilities themselves, and colleges should not have to teach them.

Although students seem to prefer the idea of crafting their own ideals, some within the faculty said they wish to see a bit more guidance.

“I would very much like to see more political-civic engagement on campus,” professor William Fowler Jr. said in an e-mail. “I know that my faculty colleagues feel the same way.”

Fowler said such discussion cannot simply appear or be forced upon the student body but instead has to be mutually encouraged.

“Faculty and students need to ask more of each other,” he said.