In the Know
The 2003 American Freshman
Last year’s entering freshmen
were more politically engaged, more conservative, more dedicated to
volunteerism—and they drink, smoke, and party less.
A three-decade trend of plummeting political
interest among freshmen has ended, with one-third (33.9 percent) of
students reporting that “keeping up-to-date with political affairs” is
a very important life goal—up from a record low of 28.1 percent
in 2000, according to the fall 2003 survey of freshmen from the Higher
Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California
at Los Angeles.
A trend toward becoming more politically
conservative that began with the 2002 class has continued—22.7
percent identify themselves as conservative, compared with 21.3 percent
in 2002. Although those identifying themselves as liberals declined
this year from 25.3 percent to 24.2 percent, liberals still slightly
outnumber conservatives, while 50.3 percent consider themselves “middle-of-the-road,” a
figure that has not changed much in recent years.
Freshmen continue to volunteer in record-setting
numbers, with 83.1 percent of students reporting they participated
in volunteer work during their last year in high school, up from 82.6
percent in 2002 and a low of 66 percent in 1989. These high numbers
reflect a trend among the nation’s high schools of adding a community
service component to their graduation requirements. Requiring high
school students to volunteer in their communities has an impact on
students’ college careers as well—a record 25.3 percent
of freshman reported a “very good chance” that they will
participate in volunteer work during college, compared with just 16.9
percent in 1990.
The importance of raising a family
reached an all-time high, 74.8 percent, while the need to “develop
a meaningful philosophy of life” dropped to an all-time low,
with only 39.3 percent viewing it as an important goal in life.
Religious involvement also reached
its lowest point in 35 years, falling to 80.4 percent reporting that
they attended religious services frequently or occasionally during
their last years in high school.
This year’s freshmen also reported
the lowest rates of drinking and smoking in the history of the survey,
with only 44.8 percent reporting frequent or occasional beer drinking—compared
with 73.7 percent in 1982—and a record low of 6.3 percent of
students reporting frequent cigarette smoking during their last year
in high school. Smoking rates have consistently fallen over the past
five years.
More on the HERI survey can be found
at www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html.
| From The
Lectern |
"Scholarship
is a communal activity, so experimental results are not deemed
valuable until they are given to others, and scholars are honored
according to how many results they give. The recent tendency
to treat research results like commodities, goods to be exchanged
for cash, threatens the contributions that university-based
scholarship makes to society.... Important and unexpected experimental
results once led university scientists to rush down the hall
and share their excitement with their colleagues. When the
rush is instead to consult a patent attorney and a venture
capitalist, I worry about the long-term future of scientific
discovery."
—John
R. Menninger, from The Chronicle Review, September 14,
2001, p. B14
|
