Institutional Correlates of Faculty Support of Campus Unrest

Administrative characteristics of 301 nationally representative colleges and universities are related to faculty support of campus activism (in attitude and in behavior). The findings indicate that faculty may provide the link between the incidence of campus unrest and institutional characteristics, independent of student body attributes. The consistently-observed relationship between institutional quality measures and the incidence of unrest is considered in relation to faculty as well as student attributes. The results are discussed in terms of a model currently employed in a program of research on campus unrest. This model encompasses the totality of factors, both endogeneous and exogeneous, which contribute to the incidence of protest. Alternative hypotheses about the impact of faculty on campus unrest are considered, additional necessary research on the role of faculty is specified, and other programmatic analyses currently underway on the various components of the research model are noted briefly.