By By Kitt Wolfenden, News Staff

The freshman class of 2008 broke records for its levels of political discussion, support for liberal causes and concern for college costs and finances, according to an annual survey of the students of 340 colleges and universities nationwide conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
One of the most dramatic findings in this year’s survey results was the increased level of political discussion among incoming college freshmen. Linda DeAngelo, one of the ‘American Freshman’ survey Research Directors, said 60.3 percent of students reported occasionally discussing politics, and 35.6 percent reported doing so frequently, the highest level ever recorded by the survey.
DeAngelo said there were connections between high political engagement and the groundbreaking 2008 election season.
‘I think we had a historic election this year,’ DeAngelo said. ‘If you think about the drawn-out process for the Democratic nomination, the conversation about the economy, the fact that we had the first African-American candidate this year, that’s important, and I’m sure that students now might be talking about politics in a different way than they would otherwise.’
A change can also be observed in the identification of students along the political spectrum. The percentage of students identifying themselves as liberal is the highest in 35 years, at 31.0 percent, while the middle-of-the-road number is at an all-time low of 43.3 percent.
‘This movement is in one direction,’ DeAngelo said. ‘The conservative category has gone down a little bit but has generally stayed the same, but there’s a shift out of the middle to the left.’
Jenny Patel, a middler health science major, said she believes that Obama’s leadership is causing the shift to the left.
‘I think more people are liberal now because our country has been under a conservative administration for eight years, people wanted change, and the fact that President Obama inspires hope within the country influenced the younger audience as well,’ she said. ‘People think he might be the one who can fix our country’s problems.’
Liberal issues also received unprecedented amounts of support.
In 2008, 66.2 percent of survey respondents supported the right to marriage for same-sex couples, and 45.3 percent said it is ‘very important’ or ‘essential’ to adopt green practices to protect the environment.
‘Personally, I support gay marriage, and I know a lot of friends that go to NU that also do,’ Patel said. ‘I don’t know many people who don’t support it.’
Freshman architecture major Chelsea Brown said the environment is a more important issue today because of the increased visibility of the consequences of our actions.
‘I think that now we’re seeing repercussions of poor attention we’ve paid to the environment, and we’re seeing the effects we’ve had on our environment,’ she said. ‘There’s more action to take care of the planet now, and it’s in the media more often.’
Financial issues also broke survey records. More than ever before, students reported in 2008 that they will get jobs to pay for college, and 49.4 percent of respondents reported that they will seek employment. The 43 percent of students reporting that financial aid was a ‘very important’ or ‘essential’ consideration in choosing which school to attend was an all-time high, and a 3.3 percent jump from 2007.
‘It definitely influences where I go to school,’ Brown said. ‘I chose Northeastern because I received more financial aid here than from anywhere else. I also know people who are transferring out of their schools because of financial aid.’
DeAngelo said students’ financial concerns stood out to her because of the survey’s timing.
‘Students took these surveys well before the economic crisis started’ and before the first bailout,’ she said. ‘But we were already seeing concern from students, and next year we will see even more of that. We expect that trend to continue.’
DeAngelo said she was surprised by the amount of new records.
‘These results were very unusual,’ DeAngelo said. ‘Usually maybe we have one new record or two new records, but to have this many is pretty interesting and could be a signal that we as a country are moving in new directions.’