College freshmen in 2004 are less concerned about racial
discrimination and are more politically polarized, according to a
survey released Tuesday by the UCLA Higher Education Research
Institute.
The number of freshmen who indicated that “helping to
promote racial understanding” was an “essential”
or “very important” personal goal declined to 29.7
percent, and the number of freshmen who said they felt racial
discrimination was no longer a problem increased to 22.7 percent,
according to the survey.
Linda Sax, the principal author of the survey, said the results
reflect a perceived declining focus on the importance of racial
issues for this year’s freshman class.
Sax also discussed data that indicates there is decreasing
interracial interaction and the continuing presence of the digital
divide, a term that refers to disparities in technological
preparedness based on race.
“At the same time as we have fewer students interacting
across racial lines, we have a growing technological gap between
whites and Asians on one hand and Latinos and African-Americans on
the other hand,” she said. “It speaks to little
awareness of racial discrimination.”
Sax said she believes the job of universities was to help
students have an informed understanding about race relations and to
bring this dialogue into the classroom.
Val Rust, a professor in the education department who is working
on an analysis of last year’s survey results, said the data
was troubling.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that students are
feeling that there’s no need to pay attention to
discrimination, because it’s so rampant and ought to remain a
terribly important issue in our lives,” he said.
But David Sears, a political science professor, said the data
reflects a long-term trend in society in general.
“We’ve used items almost exactly like that in
national surveys of adults, and the long-term trend is toward
decreased belief that racial discrimination is a serious
problem,” he said.
Sears said because extreme forms of segregation seem to have
faded from public view, many people believe racial discrimination
no longer exists.
Many people are not aware of the subtler forms of segregation
that exist, he said.
“I wouldn’t take it as an indication that college
students were becoming more racially prejudiced,” he
said.
A longitudinal study of UCLA students that Sears worked on
indicates that students of all ethnic groups have become less
conservative on racial issues during their time in college, he
said.
“They’re more likely to appreciate the amount of
racial discrimination that there is in society at the end of
college than when they entered,” he said.
Another result of the survey is that students are more
politically polarized.
The number of students who described themselves as “far
left” (3.4 percent) and “far right” (2.2 percent)
both reached record highs, but Sax said she would partly attribute
the increased polarization of students to the presidential
campaign, during which the survey was administered.
Over time, students have been less politically active, but there
has been some resurgence in student activism over the past few
years, she said.
“If you look at the relation between political activism
and political orientation, students who are the most politically
active are also the ones who are identifying more strongly with one
side or the other,” she said, adding that it was difficult to
predict how this data would play out.
Sears said he doubted the change in polarization was
significant, and said he believed the trend was small.
“Certainly we had a very heated presidential campaign and
a very polarized campaign, so it wouldn’t be surprising to me
if some of that was trickling down. But you’d need a larger
number of people to make a case that there’s a large
change,” he said.
Rust said political polarization among students reflected a
national norm he thought faculty members should try to
ameliorate.
“I don’t find polarization a healthy thing. My
objective would be to attempt as far as possible to create a
dialogue in coursework or in the university environment, so that we
can become aware of each other and appreciate each other’s
differences,” he said.
But some students viewed political polarization positively
because it increases political activity on campus.
Undergraduate Students Association Council President Allende
Palma/Saracho said he thought the election caused increased
polarization and hopes it will mean more activism on the part of
students.
“Folks who tend to have an adamant stance on politics tend
to want to get involved. I think that’s been missing on
campus for a while,” he said.
Palma/Saracho, a fifth-year American literature and culture and
Chicana and Chicano studies student minoring in political science,
said based on his experience at UCLA and from speaking to past USAC
representatives, he thinks the repeal of affirmative action has
resulted in fewer minorities being admitted to the university and a
change in the type of individual being admitted.
“The type of student coming in is more interested in
individual versus community sentiment. More folks are stuck on
books instead of trying to help out, (doing) community service,
getting involved,” he said.
Students are less aware of issues like racial discrimination,
which could cause problems, he said.
“The largest problem is you have a public university
that’s not representative of the public,” he said,
adding that decreasing admissions of minorities could cause social
unrest in the community at large.