All of 42.3 percent of full-time freshmen surveyed last year described themselves to pollsters as politically middle-of-the-road, according to the results of the study conducted by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute and released this week.
The percentage of students who identified politically in the middle is the lowest pollsters have seen since the survey started in 1966, its authors acknowledged.
“Today’s college freshmen are more politically divided and more interested in political engagement than their peers of the last 50 years,” Kevin Eagan, lead author of the report and managing director of the Higher Education Research Institute, told the Los Angeles Times.
“College and university leaders need to be proactive in providing opportunities for students to discuss their differences, political and otherwise, in constructive ways while also ensuring that their campuses respect and protect students’ free speech,” he said.
More than one-third of college freshmen, 35.5 percent, described themselves last year as liberal or far-left, according to the report. Only 22.2 percent, meanwhile, identified themselves as conservative or far-right, pollsters reported.
