Des Moines Register
03-25-06
Survey: ISU freshmen worry less about racism than U.S. peers do
LISA LIVERMORE
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. — Iowa State University freshmen are less concerned about racial
discrimination and racial understanding than their national peers, according to a
University of California-Los Angeles survey released Friday.
"This is not good," said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy during a President's
Council meeting Friday morning, where the survey results were released.
The survey asked 2,700 full-time freshmen in the fall of 2005 at ISU and 263,710
freshmen nationwide questions on their views on race, education, religion and
more.
The survey was performed by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at
UCLA.
According to that survey, 26.9 percent of ISU freshmen said racial discrimination
is no longer a problem in America, compared with 21.3 percent of freshmen at
colleges and universities nationally.
Nationally, 32.8 percent of university freshmen said it was essential or very
important to promote racial understanding, compared with 18.6 percent of ISU
freshmen.
Michael Whiteford, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
who also co-chairs an advisory council to the president on diversity, said the
results aren't surprising, but said he would like to know student attitudes on
diversity after spending time at ISU.
"The diversification of this university is an ongoing process," he said.
"There's not going to be a time when you say, 'Oh, we're done.' . . . We'll always
be striving to improve ourselves, making this campus a truly broad-based
accepting community of scholars and students."
The study also asked freshmen about their study habits, life goals and religious
and political views.
Fewer ISU freshmen keep up with day-to-day political affairs than their national
peers, but more ISU freshmen consider themselves conservative politically, the
survey said.
Also, ISU freshmen reported that they earned nearly as many A's in high school
as their national counterparts, but that they studied less.
About a third of students across the country said they spent six hours or more a
week studying or doing homework, while 23.3 percent of ISU freshmen said they
did that.
"They didn't have to work as hard to do it," said Geoffroy, who presented the
findings during the monthly meeting held by him and university administrative
officers.
The survey also charted the evolution of attitudes among new freshmen at ISU.
In 1995, 70 percent said raising a family was important, compared with 78.5 who
said it was important in the fall of 2005.
Also, fewer freshmen today, compared with a decade ago, think it's important to
become an authority in their chosen field of study.
In 1995, 65.4 percent of ISU freshmen said that was important, compared with
54.2 percent in 2005.