Students take middle road

Insight on the News, Feb 5, 1996 by Carol Innerst

A survey of 240,000 students attending nearly 475 colleges and universities shows movement toward the center - and toward extremes.

Heading into a presidential-election year, America's college students are sticking politically to the "middle of the road," according to a national survey of college freshmen released in January At the same time, small but growing minorities are labeling themselves "far left" or "far right."

The 1.6 percent describing themselves as "far right" hit a peak for the 30-year-old survey, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles and the American Council on Education. The 2.7 percent describing themselves as "far left" was a 25-year high.

Among fall freshmen, 54.3 percent called their political views "middle of the road," up from 52.6 percent the previous year. "For the first time in the history of the survey, we have a situation where the large majority of young people are moving toward the center at the same time the small minorities at the extremes are growing," observes Alexander W. Astin, a professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Historically black colleges harbor the highest percentages of students attracted to extremes, with 4.8 percent calling themselves "far left" (down from 4.9 percent last year) and 1.8 percent labeling themselves "far right" (up from 1.5 percent last year). "What's happening is that the youth are not confronted with some of the old delineations of Republicans vs. Democrats," says Alvin Williams, executive director of Black America's Political Action Committee. "They're looking at it from an economic point of view and coming down on line with Republicans. There's still a perception barrier, but they do not have the mental blockage that generations before them may have had coming out of the sixties and seventies."

Clarence Thomas' confirmation as a Supreme Court justice gave credence to the conservative label, according to Williams. "Also, the proliferation of conservative talk-show hosts [including Williams' brother, Armstrong] make it possible for black youth to think outside the political dotted lines."

Overall, fewer students say they agree with the statement "If two people like each other, it's all right for them to have sex even if they've known each other for a very short time" - 42.7 percent in 1995 compared with a high of 51.9 percent in 1987. On the other hand, fewer believe that homosexual relationships should be prohibited - 30.6 percent last year compared with a high of 53.2 percent in 1987.

Opinions split equally on the statement "Affirmative action in college admissions should be abolished," but 70 percent of the students said college admissions officers should give "some special consideration" to race. "This discrepancy highlights the fact that people are willing to support the consideration of race in admissions but are less willing to commit themselves to the more politically loaded phrase `affirmation action,"' says Linda J. Sax, associate director of the survey.

More than 96 percent of the students surveyed support consideration of academic achievement in college admissions decisions. Overwhelming majorities also believed admissions officials should give special consideration to economic background (96 percent), athletic ability (84.S percent), foreign students (86.4 percent) and children of alumni (58.3 percent).

Conservative students show declining support for sexual and reproductive freedom, with 58.4 percent supporting legalized abortion, compared with a high of 64.9 percent in 1990. Liberal students' support for legalizing marijuana reached a 15-year high of 33.8 percent.

Whatever their political views, students' commitment to "keeping up with political affairs" dropped for the third year to a low of 28.5 percent, compared with the survey's high of 57.8 percent in 1966. "This continuing erosion of students' political interest and engagement should be a red flag to all of us who believe in the democratic process," says Astin.

Religious interest is at an all-time low (19.4 percent had not attended a religious service in a year) and students also are less interested in academics. A record 33.9 percent reported being bored in class. Students who reported spending at least six hours a week studying during their senior year in high school dropped from 43.7 percent in 1987 to 35 percent in 1995.

As students devoted less time to academics, they spent more time working, exercising, playing sports or using personal computers.