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Show 11~ ''OUT T-H~ ~ ~ ~ -- .......;.....;.__....__ .............;........___~....-....---.........,____. Survey says freshmen less interested in activism National poll also show new college students less apt to opt for casual sex; more oppose abortion By DEB RIECHMANN ASSOCLATED PRESS WRITER WASHINGTON (AP) - T oday's college freshmen have little passion to push for political and social reform, with rising numbers believing that individuals are powerless to bring about change, a survey says. The percentage of freshmen who think one person "can do li ttle to change society" rose to nearly 34 percent - a 10-year high, according to the annual survey conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles. " Apparently, increasing political apathy goes hand-in-hand with disengagement from social act ion and a growing sense of powerlessness," said Alexander W. As tin, director of the survey conducted by UCLA' s High er Education Research Institute. However, Joe Galli, chairman of the College Republican National Committee, cautions against using survey results to make generalizations about the ranks of today's college freshmen. " I think student activism is at an all-ti me low ... not because of a sense of powerlessness, but because they are cynical of government and fa lse politicians," Galli said. " And I think that is the reason why they are becoming more conservative." The fa ll survey, sponsored by the Amer ican Council on Education, was given to 323,79 1 entering freshman at 641 two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Of these, 240,082 questionnaires from 473 institutions were used. T he institute then we ighted the da ta in an effort to make it reflecti ve of the views of the nation's 1.5 million firs ttime college freshmen. The survey showed that students' commitmen t to keeping up-to-date with political affairs dropped for a third straight year to an all-time low of 28.5 percent, compared with a high of nearly 58 percent in 1966. Fresh men have become less in terested in influencing politics and social values, cleanj ng up the environment and promo ting racial understanding and participating in a com munity action program. Since 1992, freshmen interest dt opped from 3 percent to 11 percen t in each of these categories. In the survey, college freshmen also voiced dwindling support fo r casual sex and legal abortion. But t!'ley have more liberal views on marijuana, with those favoring legalization reaching a IS-year high . Support for keeping abortion legal rose steadily in the late 1980s, but in the 1995 survey, it declined fo r the third straight year - to 58 percent. in 1987, 52 percent of the freshmen responding to the survey supported casual sex. Now, 43 percent say it's OK for two people to have sex even if they've only known each other a short time. " There are more diseases and stuff. And I just don't think people want to sleep with the first person they meet . They want to get to know them better," said Dennise Ledesma, an 18-year-old fres hman at California State University-Los Angeles. Among college freshmen, the belief that homosexual relationships should·be prohibited has declined from a high of 53 percent in 1987 to an all-time low of 30.6 percent. And support for legalizing mari juana has risen to n early 34 percent - up from 17 percent in 1989. " It's so abundant. It's no big deal because everybody is using it," said Jason Zavada, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Kentucky who supports legalization. " We don 't see all the bad it's causing, It' s an insane policy to treat people like criminals fo r using something that comes from the earth." . More than half the freshmen surveyed labeled their political views as " middle-of-the-road." But the 30-year-old survey says growing bands of liberals and conservatives are scooting farther to the left and righ t . "For the first time in the history of the survey, we have a situation where the large majority of young people are moving toward the center at the same time the small minorities at the extremes are growing," Astin said. A majority of new college freshmen expressed support fo r the use of race as a basis for college admission. The freshmen, however, are shying away from the term " affirmative action." "This discrepancy highlights the fac t that people are willing to support the consideration of race in admissions, . but are less willing to commit themselves to the more politically loaded phrase, ' affirmative action,"' said Linqa J. Sax, associate director of the survey. USU tuition experiment short-lived, awash in red ink LOGAN, Utah (AP) - An exper iment aimed at speeding graduation at Utah State University was well-intention but shortlived after sending the school spiralling into the red. School officials have decided to modify the socalled "plateau tuition" schedule that allowed s tudents to take from 12 to 18 credit hours at a flat rate. Part-time students were charged more. T he goal was to encourage students to ta ke more classes, graduate sooner and make room for more bodies. But the plan backfired. While more full-time students took advantage of the flat-ra te, more part-time students stayed home, possibly because the) could not afford the higher tuiurn nor the time to capilalizc 01nb.: free hours. That cost the school about $887,000 :n projected tuition proceeds, Untversity Admmistrative Services Vice President Fred Hunsaker said. "If you analyze this from a philosophical standpoint, the plateau tuition plan worked very well" because so many students bulked up on the extra hours, Hunsaker said. "The revenue side of it, the students who thdn't show up, was the part that wasn't successful" That's why USU now wants to recalibrate its tuition schedule. Under the proposal still to be approved by the Board of Regents, students would I have to take at least 13 credit hours before the flatrate kicked in. T o en tice other students to return, the university would drop the cost of part-time tuition ever so sligh tly. University 0fficials hope the changes will raise 'When you're setting budgets based on 20,000 students, behavior and reactions are impossible to predict with any precision,' said USU VP Fred Hunsaker. tuition revenue to make up for the shortfall. "When you're setting budgets based on 20,000 students, behavior and reactions are impossible to predict with any precision," he said. " We have learned something through the process . We're in a much stronger position to evaluate student behavior than we were" before fall quarter. Meanwhile, university department heads and college deans still are deciding how to cut their budgets to accommodate the rest of the shortfall. Aside from the tution miscue, USU also lost expected cash when the state came up with a new formula for calculating a11d paying for high school students taking classes at the uruvers1ty. Some department heads have said they may have to cut classes, not hire adiunct professor or put off computer purchases because of the bclt-tightenmg. USU's tuition announcement came the same day as its annual audit review. Accountants from two firms and in-house auditors all gave the university glowing marks for the way it does business. Deloitte and Touche's audit of the university's 1995 balance sheet did not tum up a single recommendation for refining operations. "How many times have you audited a $500 million company and not had any management comments," asked Board of Trustc.es Chairman Jed Pitcher. |