45 years ago today - Mar 21, 1977

BYU president Dallin Oaks writes to Gordon B. Hinckley: "The average rating for the fifteen full-time members of the political science faculty was 4.9. The individual ratings varied from 3 to 8. The average for the history department was on the conservative side of the line, 5.8. There the ratings varied from 3 to 9. . . . The middle-of-the-road average alignment of our faculty in these departments is in sharp contrast to the situation that would prevail in any other major university of which I am aware." Oaks had asked academic vice-president Robert Thomas "to rate each faculty member on a political scale from far left liberal (assigned a value of 1) to far right conservative (assigned a value of 9)." His letter to Hinckley summarized the results.