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Written by WiG
Jan 27, 2012
First-year college students' political and social views shifted in a more liberal direction in 2011, according to an annual survey of freshmen in four-year schools.
The UCLA's annual survey noted changes in attitude on same-sex marriage, affirmative action and access to higher education for undocumented students.
The survey, part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, is administered nationally by the Higher Education Research Institute at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
An unprecedented 71.3 percent of incoming college students indicated that same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status, compared with 64.9 percent in 2009. While support for same-sex marriage is highest among female students and those who identify as liberal, a significant amount of conservative students (42.8 percent) and an increasing number of male students (64.1 percent in 2011 vs. 56.7 percent in 2009) expressed support for this issue.
“Among students entering college, we're seeing a more unified support for same-sex marriage that reaches across political party lines,” said John H. Pryor, lead author of the report and director of CIRP. “Given the influence of young voters in the last presidential election, candidates may want to pay careful attention to the student perspective on these and other civil rights issues.”
Students also demonstrated more progressive attitudes about policies that give students from disadvantaged backgrounds preferential treatment in college admissions. Despite the increasingly competitive admissions environment, which has resulted in fewer students gaining acceptance to their first-choice college, the number of students supporting preferential treatment in college admissions rose from 37.4 percent in 2009 to 42.1 percent in 2011, a 4.7 percentage-point increase.
In another finding with important implications in the current political climate, fewer students said they believe that undocumented students should be denied access to public education.
Since the question was last asked in 2009, opposition to educational access for these students dropped by 4.2 percentage points, from 47.2 percent to 43.0 percent in 2011.
The survey also found that on the academic front:
• The proportion of students who had taken at least one advanced placement course rose from 67.9 percent in 2009 to 71.0 percent in 2011.
• More students indicated that as college students, they expected to discuss course content with their peers outside of class.
• The proportion of students who said they drank beer as high school seniors dropped from 38.4 percent in 2010 to 35.4 percent in 2011, while those who said they drank wine and/or liquor dropped from 43.3 percent in 2010 to 41.1 percent in 2011.
• The proportion of students who reported spending six or more hours a week studying or doing homework as high school seniors rose to 39.5 percent, from 37.3 percent in 2010.
