Generation Gap

As indicated by quiet campuses, today's college students are more interested in their studies than in protest demonstrations. Now it appears that this year's freshmen are also a little more conservative than their predecessors.

Last week the American Council on Education released the results of a survey of 188,900 freshmen at 373 schools across the country. It found that nearly 48% described themselves as middle-of-the-road, and 16.6% said they were conservative, up slightly from a year ago. The number of those who feel that the Federal Government is not doing enough to promote school desegregation declined three points to about 48%. More than half think the courts are too concerned with the rights of criminals, compared with 48% the year before. The survey also found that more freshmen smoke cigarettes (up about four points to 20%), fewer drink beer (down ten points to 50%) and more think marijuana should be legalized (46% against last year's 39%). Additionally, more hope to join fraternities or sororities (17%).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.