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Annual Freshman Survey

The 2006 entering freshman class reports the highest level of interest in politics of any class in the past 40 years—and fewer than ever call themselves middle-of the-road

Among its notable characteristics, the 2006 freshman class is talking about politics more frequently and taking more defined political positions than its predecessors, according to the annual UCLA survey of entering freshman. A record 23.9 percent of 2006 college freshman—the highest level in the 40-year history of the survey—identify themselves as conservative, while 28.4 percent call themselves liberal, the highest proportion since 1975. The proportion of middle-of-the-roaders was 43.1 percent, down from prior years.

Despite their self-identified political status, 73 percent of the surveyed freshmen supported a national heath-care plan, and 77.9 percent said the federal government was not doing enough to control environmental pollution. On the other side of the spectrum, nearly half—52.7 percent of conservatives and 44.6 percent of liberals—said affirmative action should be abolished in college admissions. The percentages were similar on whether undocumented immigrants should be denied access to public education.

Questions on abortion rights and same-sex marriage were the most polarizing. More than 75 percent of liberal freshman supported legalized abortion, while 70 percent of conservatives opposed it. On the issue of same-sex marriage, four out of five liberals supported legalization, while 70 percent of conservatives opposed it. Overall, 61.2 percent of those surveyed supported same-sex marriage.

Freshmen across the political spectrum—66.1 percent of liberals and 63.2 percent of conservatives—agreed that “dissent is a critical component of the political process.”

This freshman class also exhibits an interest in community service, with two-thirds reporting that “helping others in difficulty” is very important, with the numbers even higher for students attending public—75 percent—and historically black—79 percent—institutions.

Again this year, affordability emerged as a major issue, with 64.1 percent of freshmen saying they were concerned about their ability to pay for college. More of them than in previous years planned to have part- or full-time jobs during college.

The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles has surveyed the nation’s freshmen since 1966. This year’s responses came from more than 270,000 freshmen at nearly 400 four-year colleges. Summaries of the survey are available on the institute’s Web page www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/norms06.php.