w w w w w w - - w w w- wry IW mw ,w w s ,w mw At"iie' Jew It may seem like students of the money and materialism, and '80s care about not much else. But appearances disguise something much different. By Rebecca Blumenstein HAT ARE WE THINKING? Sociologists, politicians, journalists, and students have offered plenty of speculation about attitudes on college campuses across the country. We're apathetic, liberal, neo- activists, conservative, or all of the above, depending on who you believe. Michigan students have come under particularly close scrutiny. Ann Arbor, along with Berkeley and Madison, was a center of national protest in the 1960s. U-M students staged the first sit-ins. Tom Hayden's Students for a Democratic Society was born here. But a decade-and-a-half later, those former students are the Big Chill generation, calmed and career-oriented role models for today's students. Michigan's once-fervent student body, many say, has become politically polite; conservative, and content with society as it is, interested more in making money than mobilizing for change. As it turns out, the picture-and perhaps the student body-is more sophisticated than that. According to an elaborate study by Sam Eldersveld, a political science professor and former mayor of Ann Arbor, the student activism and awareness that characterized the 1960s is not dead, just dormant-it may return, under the right conditions. "Don't write off students of today just because they aren't morally outraged at society," said Eldersveld. "Their forms of involvement are just more sophisticated. They won't jump into something without the feeling that something can be accomplished." Eldersveld's survey is a rare source of "hard data" on the subject, the first formal study of Michigan students in over 15 years. Last fall he conducted the project with his American Political Parties class. Students interviewed 200 LSA sophmores and seniors, along with over 40 campus leaders in political organizations. The study sought to determine how liberal or conservative Michigan's students are, chart their political affiliation and voting behavior, and guage their potential to become politically active on campus. About 100 students participated in the interviewing process during the fall term, and 20 stayed on through an Blumenstein is a Daily staff reporter. independent study program to help compile the data during winter semester. Jennifer Adolph, an LSA senior who worked on the entire project, had many positive conclusions about what was discovered through the survey. "We were shocked at how many wanted to participate in the survey. I didn't see apathy as a motivating force behind even a small percentage of those who I talked to," Adolph said. "There is no excuse for ignorance, though, and it was dissappointing to see how many didn't really seem to be aware of the world surrounding them," she added. Mark Rose, another LSA senior who worked on the survey, sensed a general interest by students in world affairs. But they are discouraged from becoming active, he said, by feelings of helplessness. "I've concluded that students of today still do care about more beside themselves, but they may just express it in a different way," Rose said. "For many that I interviewed the gap between themselves and the political process was so large that they tended to withdraw themselves. The decisions that we have to make about our future are always getting bigger and bigger, and when you have someone else out there to decide the rest for you, its easy just to let someone else do it." But Eldersveld's survey found that, despite these tendencies, political efficacy, the belief that one can make a difference, is far from dead. Although only four per cent of the sophmores surveyed and five percent of seniors had ever participated in a sit-in, about three-quarters of respondents had- signed petitions for a cause that they believed in. "Real activism"-involvment in a rally or joining a political organization-was generally confined to a small set of students. Eldersveld is quick to point out that this doesn't mean that students of today are apathetic and unaware of world surrounding them. One of the survey's most surprising discoveries was that the "potential" for activism at Michigan is great. Over half of the sophmores surveyed will work for a campus political organization, participate in a rally or demonstations, or write a letter of protest-"under certain circumstances." Moreover, one-third to one-half expressed an interest in more "hard core" techniques such as helping to organize a rally or petition drive. This indicates a latent readiness to act if the issue at stake is considered important. For example, if the United States invaded Nicaragua, about half of the students said they would consider taking action, with opponents of the invasion outnumbering supporters ft An impressive 85 perc( they would probably or de governing student condi consideration-if it was c information is of grea administration, ever-mindfi campus during the '60s anc But there's no doubt ti conservative, at least relati concluded that a majority c conservativism, with m identifying themselves as I they think his administrat economy and increased the "One of our most si economic concerns has afi concerns, and mobility," sa 1HE ECONOMI college education no longe from two decades ago. In the '60s the America greatest period of growth according to Aldon Mc Michigan was an upper cla elite education that wouli society's privileged jobs. "It's easy to glorify the aspirations embodied all,' important to remember tha with activism were a self disproporionately concent Indeed, the vast majoril like Hayden's SDS and ti heavily concentrated in tl Similarly, Eldersveld's sur students are less active a those students who lean me But there is a difference of the '60s to expect a graduation; today that is ha Conti? WEEKEND/OCTOBER 31, 1986.