An article in Inside Higher Ed highlighted research showing college students are increasingly uncomfortable sharing political opinions. I don’t know about comfort levels, but we do track engagement with others from different political backgrounds through the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).
Political engagement with others decreased over the last 10 years at ISU. I recently attended the annual Higher Learning Commission conference. One of the keynotes, Eric Liu, spoke about the higher education’s role in fostering political engagement among students. This is an important topic.
The specific political engagement question is during the current school year, about how often have you had discussions with people with different political beliefs than your own?
The chart shows a decrease over 10 years for ISU seniors. A similar pattern for first-year students.
This is in contrast to engagement with people from different economic, religious, sexual orientation, and race/ethnic backgrounds, which have been stable or increased. While political engagement with others has decreased, discussions with people from different race backgrounds has actually increased.
NSSE results also show that ISU students are highly engaged in civic activities, community service, and volunteering, largely facilitated by the ISU Center for Civic Engagement. Engagement in these activities fulfills ISU’s mission, builds capacity in communities, and is associated with student success.
