This article in the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) about a poll taken by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research tries, I think, to draw a bigger distinction between the public vs. college faculty results than I think the results justify:

Results of a two-year study released this week show one-third of university faculty nationwide have an unfavorable impression of Latter-day Saints, while an equal proportion of the general population holds a favorable view.

I guess I’m just not sure that statement has a lot of real information in it. If you sum up the results, you get the following:

• General public: 33% “warm”, 43% neutral,  18% “cold”, 6% don’t know/refuse to answer
• University faculty: 40% “warm”, 20% neutral, 33% “cold”, 8% don’t know/refuse to answer

The only real conclusion is that the faculty members surveyed are less neutral, that is, more have an actual opinion, and that that the non-neutral faculty members divide a bit more evenly on the “warm”/”cold” rating than the public at large — not surprising given the general secular/liberal nature of university faculty. In fact, I’m a bit surprised that “warm” respondents outnumber “cold” ones at all.  ..bruce..