Academic And Political Engagement Among Nation's College Freshmen Is At All-Time Low, UCLA Study Finds
The American Freshman - National Norms for 1997

The nation's college freshmen are feeling less connected with academics and politics than any entering class in the 32-year history of UCLA's annual survey of college freshmen. However, today's freshmen also aspire to higher academic degrees than students of the past, the nationwide survey finds.

The fall 1997 survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies shows that a record high of 36 percent of freshmen report being frequently bored in class during their last year of high school, compared with the all-time low of 26.4 percent in 1985. The percentage of students who "overslept and missed class or an appointment" also breaks records at 34.5 percent, in contrast to the overall low of 18.8 percent in 1968.

And yet this increasing disengagement from school comes at a time when a record 39.4 percent of freshmen surveyed aspire to master's degrees and an all-time high of 15.3 percent plan to pursue Ph.D. degrees. Nearly one half (49.7 percent) of freshmen say they expect to earn a 'B' average in college, compared with a low of 32.7 percent in 1972. And 18.5 percent plan to graduate with honors, compared with a low of 3.7 percent in 1968.

"These trends suggest that while students' level of involvement in their studies is down, they realize the need to be successful in college in order to remain competitive for graduate school admissions," said survey director Linda J. Sax, a visiting assistant professor of education at UCLA. "Academic credentials, rather than a love of learning, seem to be their motivation."

UCLA's annual nationwide freshman survey, conducted under the continuing sponsorship of the American Council on Education, is the nation's longest-standing and most comprehensive assessment of student attitudes and plans. The 1997 survey included 348,465 students at 665 of the nation's two- and four-year colleges and universities. The data from 252,082 of these students at 464 institutions have been adjusted statistically to be representative of the 1.6 million students entering college as first-time, full-time freshmen last fall.

This year's freshmen demonstrate the lowest levels of political interest in the history of the survey. The percentage of freshmen believing that "keeping up to date with political affairs" is an important life goal is way down -- 26.7 percent, compared with 29.4 percent just a year ago and a high of 57.8 percent in 1966. Similarly, survey results show today's freshmen are less likely to discuss politics and have less desire to "influence the political structure" than their counterparts of previous years.

While the percentage of students working on a political campaign increased from 6.6 percent to 8.2 percent between 1996 and 1997, this figure remains at only half of the record-high 16.4 percent reached in 1969.

Here's a sampling of other survey results and major trends since the first survey in fall 1966:

Commitment to social activism is down
In addition to waning student interest in academics and politics, many indicators of social activism are on the decline since their peak in 1992. The percentage of students who say that "becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment" is an important life goal declined steadily from 33.6 percent in 1992 to 19.4 percent in 1997. Commitment to "helping to promote racial understanding" fell to its lowest point in a decade, 31.8 percent, compared with 34.7 percent in 1996 and a high of 42 percent in 1992. Also on the decline is the percentage of students who consider it very important or essential to "participate in a community action program" and who are committed to "influencing social values."

"These trends are part of a larger pattern of disengagement of the American people from political and civic life in general," said UCLA education Professor Alexander W. Astin, founding director of the survey and director of GSE&IS' Higher Education Research Institute.

At the same time, the rate of student volunteerism continues to climb, with 1997 figures breaking the 1996 record. The percentage of students performing volunteer work in their last year in high school reached 73.1 percent, compared with 71.8 percent in 1996 and 62 percent in 1989.

"Given the students' disengagement from politics and activism, these trends may simply reflect the fact that more high schools are promoting student volunteerism or even requiring it as a condition for graduation," Astin said. "Such a conclusion is consistent with the finding that only 19 percent of freshman respondents say there is a 'very good chance' they'll perform volunteer or community service during college."

Social attitudes growing more conservative
Survey results indicate students are becoming more conservative in their views on social issues. Support for keeping abortion legal declined for the fifth straight year to 53.5 percent, compared with a high of 64.9 percent in 1990. This represents the lowest level of support for legal abortion since 1979.

And after nearly a decade of growing acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships, the percentage of those who believe that "it is important to have laws prohibiting homosexual relationships" increased for the second straight year to 33.9 percent.

"This two-year reversal may be attributable to changing interpretation of the survey question such that students may have begun to interpret the question as one addressing gay marriages," Sax suggested. Even so, nearly half (49.8 percent) of freshmen believe that "same sex couples should have the right to legal marital status."

Smoking gains popularity
The percentage of freshman smokers is at the highest level in 30 years, with 16.1 percent saying they smoke frequently, compared with 14.5 percent in 1996. That's nearly double the 1987 figure of 8.9 percent. And in a trend begun in the early 1970s, women continue to out-smoke men, with 17.3 percent of them reporting frequent smoking compared with 14.6 percent of men.

"Apparently, recent tobacco industry concessions and admission of smoking-related health risks have had no immediate effect on deterring students from smoking cigarettes," Sax noted.

Support for legalizing marijuana has been growing steadily throughout the 1990s, with 35.2 percent of this year's freshmen agreeing that "marijuana should be legalized," compared with 33 percent in 1996 and a record low of 16.7 percent in 1989. Conversely, fewer freshmen say they drink beer than has been reported in the recent past, with 52.7 percent acknowledging frequent or occasional beer drinking, down from a high of 75.2 percent in 1981.

The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA has conducted the nationwide freshman survey since 1973. Since the survey's inception in 1966, more than 9 million students at more than 1,500 institutions have participated.