A change in the campus environment:
...the Left’s long dominion over the university—the last place on earth that lefty power would break up, conservatives believed—is showing its first signs of weakening. The change isn’t coming from the schools’ faculty lounges and administrative offices, of course. It’s coming from self-organizing right-of-center students and several innovative outside groups working to bypass the academy’s elite gatekeepers...
The bustle reflects a general rightward shift in college students’ views. Back in 1995, reports UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, 66 percent of freshmen wanted the wealthy to pay higher taxes. Today, only 50 percent do. Some 17 percent of students now value taking part in environmental programs, half of 1992’s percentage. Support for abortion stood at two-thirds of students in the early nineties; now it’s just over half. A late-2003 Harvard Institute of Politics study found that college students had moved to the right of the overall population, with 31 percent identifying themselves as Republicans, 27 percent as Democrats, and the rest independent or unaffiliated...
The obligatory "Young Republicans don't fit the sartorial mold anymore" segment follows, but I suppose it's necessary; some people still believe that campus conservatives live only in long skirts, ties, or suits. (Actually, some wear pentagrams and patchouli oil.) Love the comment, though, about how the conservatives do stand out due to their apparent understanding of the uses of the laundromat. They also tend to reject the "get-drunk-and-hook-up" morality that is so pervasive these days.
Posted by kswygert at February 7, 2005 11:05 AM