J. Martin Rochester, a Curators’ Teaching Professor of political science, appeared on KMOX (1120 AM) this week and argued there needs to be more diversity of thought on college campuses in the wake of publicized protests of controversial author Charles Murray at Middlebury College. (Photo by August Jennewein)

A speaking appearance by author Charles Murray March 2 at Middlebury College in Vermont sparked protests that turned violent, even leading one professor who escorted Murray from campus to be treated for injuries at a local hospital.

The incident came barely a month after the University of California, Berkeley canceled a scheduled speaking appearance by commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, where protests caused about $100,000 worth of damage to the campus.

J. Martin Rochester, a Curators’ Teaching Professor of political science at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, sees an issue at the heart of both incidents that he believes permeates other college campuses – a lack of intellectual diversity. He talked about it last week during an appearance on The Charlie Brennan Show on KMOX (1120 AM).

“The context here is that on college campuses only one side is represented. It’s the left,” Rochester told Brennan on Thursday morning. “Middlebury is very typical. You have a kind of liberal orthodoxy on these campuses. All the data show that 90 percent of the professors in the humanities, social sciences, ed schools, law schools are liberal Democrats. And that’s fine, but these are the very folks who preach to the rest of us about diversity, and there’s virtually no diversity of thought.”

Find a podcast of Rochester’s March 9 interview on The Charlie Brennan Show here.