Innocent reasons for a liberal university faculty

I've heard people argue that universities are biased against conservatives, but I think that there's a more innocent explanation for the phenomenon.

Roughly 15000 students graduating college were surveyed about their future plans. The result was an article entitled Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates:

Liberalism is more closely associated with a desire for excitement, an interest in creative outlets,
and an aversion to a structured work environment.17 Conservatives express greater interest in
financial success and stronger desires to raise families.

This doesn't even take into account the "Christian university" phenomenon. If one were to assume that X% of both liberals and conservatives were university professors, and the Christian universities only (or largely) drew from the conservative group, then one should expect >50% of public university professors to be left-leaning.

(HT: Open Culture)