College freshmen across the nation are more inclined to be politically active through participating in public demonstrations and the electoral process, according to a study released Thursday by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program.
As part of the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, CIRP has conducted nationwide surveys on college freshmen since 1966, and this year’s survey’s result displayed a historic high.
Out of the 141,189 full-time college freshmen survey participants, 8.5 percent of the students said they had a “very good chance” of participating in student demonstration, which showed a 2.9-percent growth from 2014, according to the study. African-American students are also most likely to expect to protest this year, with a 16 percent, or “very good chance,” of protesting, which is 5.5-percent growth from last year, the study stated.
Although students tend to get involved in social issues during election years, the increase in the desire to participate in political movements is unusually high this year, CIRP Assistant Director Ellen Stolzenberg said.
“We’re sort of loosely tying [the result] to what’s going on around the country,” Stolzenberg said, “but [the survey] didn’t ask [students] specifically about what issues they were specifically going to be protesting.”
While researchers do not know if there was one specific issue that triggered freshmen’s engagement with protesting and demonstrating, Stolzenberg said the increase of involvement is indivisible with looming social issues on a larger scale.
“[Our] data [was] collected before a lot of some of the larger-scale protests that we read about [happened], but the students are exposed to everything [that is] going on,” Stolzenberg said, “whether it’s issues related to college cost or sexual assault or racist and sexist events that are going on around campus.”
Data was compiled between March and October 2015 to gather input from the incoming Class of 2019, Stolzenberg said.
“[The survey] is typically administered during orientation, [when students] haven’t officially started classes yet but are about to start.”
From the survey, researchers were able to deepen their findings about the Class of 2019. For example, female students were more concerned than males about college finances, and students favored colleges that guarantee a good job, according to the report.
Furthermore, the survey found that 81 percent of college freshmen endorsed same-sex marriage and 64 percent supported the legal status of abortion — both higher than the percentage of students who believed marijuana should be legalized, which was 56 percent.
Several Boston University freshmen said college students nowadays are becoming increasingly involved with social issues, and participating in demonstrations is a good way to show social awareness.
Olivia Dorencz, a freshman in the College of Engineering, said she became more involved in student protesting after coming to BU, and that those experiences connected her with the City of Boston.
“I did some stuff with the Students Against Silence group when Student Government was first having issues,” she said. “I’ve been to a vigil against the West Roxbury pipeline and [participated in] the Bernie Sanders march.”
Amani Wynter, a freshman in the College of General Studies, said she participates in protests when the issues specifically impact her family, friends or herself.
“I participated in the Solidarity Protest on Marsh Plaza with the students of Mizzou,” she said. “My participation in this event reflected my interest in the current events affecting my life [in regard to] race, education and equality.”
Emma Seslowsky, a sophomore in College of Arts and Sciences, said though she is passionate about a lot of social issues, that does not necessarily mean she will participate in protests.
“Participation is not necessary to prove one’s dedication to a cause,” she said. “However, the survey reflects how vocal this generation is on topics that are important to them.”
