Just plain folks

A Crimson poll of the Class of 1984 shows that popular perceptions of a left-leaning and atheist Harvard student body are myths. At least in the case of religious and political attitudes, the Class of 1984 is noteworthy not for its differences with, but rather its similarities to Americans in the same age group with a similar educational Background.

The results of the survey also lay to rest fears that the College's students have turned into apathetic pre-professionals. The poll shows large numbers of seniors reporting participation in both political and religious organizations, and an actual majority of respondents said they had been involved with a volunteer community service protect while at Harvard.

The Crimson poll surveyed 210 randomly-selected seniors over a nine-day period between May 22 and May 30. The margin of error for the poll is 6 percent.

The survey results depict a generally liberal campus. Asked the question "Rate yourself as liberal or conservative on a scale of one to seven, where one is extremely liberal and seven is extremely conservative," 60 percent of the seniors polled placed themselves somewhere on the liberal side of the center, while only 22 percent indicated they were on the conservative side of the center.

The Harvard findings are in keeping with statistics for other Americans of similar age and education. Asked the same question in a survey conducted by Professor of Sociology James A. Davis, 54 percent of a national sample of 18-25 year old college students reported themselves to the left of center, and 26 percent said they were right of center.

The Class of '84 also mirrors the nation in its religious attitudes. Forty-one percent of the seniors reported having attended religious services within the past month; one in five seniors said they had been to services within the past week. Only 21 percent of the seniors polled indicated it had been more than a year since they last attended a religious service.

General regularity of church attendance among the seniors polled again closely parallels that of the national sample Nineteen percent of Harvard seniors said they attended religious services on a weekly basis, 37 percent reported attending on a monthly basis, and 44 percent said they attended "once or twice a year" or less often. The national survey of college graduates in the 18-25 year-old range shows 23 percent attend on a weekly basis, 39 percent attend on a monthly basis, and 38 percent attend yearly or less often.

The period of time seniors have spent at Harvard seems to have had only a slightly negative effect on their religious beliefs. Asked whether they thought they were more, less or equally religious as when they first arrived at Harvard, 22 percent felt they had become more religious, while only a slightly higher 30 percent believed they had become less religious. Forty-eight percent said they remained about as religious as when they first arrived at Harvard.

Moving from opinions to activity, the results discount some of the popular conceptions of student apathy. Although Harvard students in the Class of '84 do not express their concerns about the world in the dramatic ways that their counter-parts in the Class of '69 did, the poll suggests that students today do act on their moral and political concerns, but in more traditional ways.

A large portion of the senior class reported that they had engaged in some sort of political activity beyond voting. Forty percent of the seniors polled reported that they had worked for a political candidate, one of the most traditional forms of American political activism. Closer to home, 28 percent of seniors reported having been involved with some sort of campus political group while at Harvard and 13 percent said they were involved with a political group during the past year.

This year's graduating class believes that their four years at Harvard have made them more politically active. Thirty-eight percent of those polled said they had become more active while only 14 percent said they had become less active. Fortyeight percent considered themselves about as politically active as when they first arrived.

A surprisingly high 53 percent of seniors reported participating in some sort of "volunteer community service project" while at Harvard. In addition, 37 percent of the Class of '84 indicated involvement with such a project within the past year, and nearly a quarter of the graduating seniors said they had spent more than 10 hours a month on community service activities during the past month.

Students' experiences at Harvard, however, seem to have only a small effect on their proclivity for community service. Thirty-two percent of seniors polled felt they had become more active in community service while at Harvard, as opposed to 24 percent who felt themselves less active than when they arrived. Forty-four percent of the respondents said they were now about as active in community service as when they first arrived.

The Crimson poll also found that seniors had been fairly active in religious organizations. Thirty-six percent of the seniors polled reported that they had participated in a religious organization while at Harvard, and 23 percent said they had been involved with such a group within the past year.

Kamilla Bren, Richard L. Callan, Paul Duke, Christopher J. Georges, Kristin A. Goss, Peter J. Howe, Holly A. Idelson, Rachel H. Inker, Rebecca R. Kramnick, Charles T. Kurzman, Jonathon S. Sapers, Cyrus M. Sanal and Melissa I. Weissberg contributed to the reporting for this article.

SENIOR POLL

(based on a sample of 210 seniors)

QUESTION

Since you arrived at Harvard, do you think you are more, less or about as politically active.

QUESTION

Since you arrived at Harvard, do you think you are more, less, or about as active in community service.

QUESTION

Since you arrived at Harvard, do you think you are more, less, or about as religious.