A nationwide college survey conducted by Harvard's Institute of Politics suggested that while most college students are actively involved in community issues and service, far fewer are engaged in political activism.
The survey of 1,200 randomly selected college students nationwide found that 61 percent performed community service in the last year — 75 percent of them at least monthly — but only 14 percent have participated in a government, political or issues-related organization and just 9 percent have volunteered on a political campaign, according to the survey.
Leaders of student political organizations on campus, however, expressed mixed views on the level of political participation by students at the University.
"I think that Princeton students are, by and large, apathetic with regard to politics," said Allison Ball '04, College Republicans president. "Even those who are interested have not found the issues that N.J. state politics engage to be very compelling."
Owen Conroy '05, College Democrats president, wrote in an email that he sees University students as a "very mixed group" with respect to political activism.
"I don't think that there are many politically apathetic students; most people I talk to seem to have a strong idea of what's going on in the current political scene," he said.
The Harvard survey reported that 32 percent of students said they were registered to vote and definitely would do so in the November elections.
About 35 percent of University undergraduates are registered to vote, Ball said.
"In my experience, students are reluctant to allocate their time to political activism," Ball said.
Very few Princeton students are willing to dedicate time to working on New Jersey political campaigns, she added.
The College Democrats organized a voter registration drive this fall that led to more than 100 new students voters, Conroy said. He added, however, that the University administrators recently banned partisan groups from participating in voter registration on campus.
The group also organized weekly campaign events this fall with the state Democratic campaign and with Congressman Rush Holt, Conroy said. However, the turnout was relatively low, with no more than five people participating on any given day before Election Day, he added.
Conroy suggested that one of the reasons for the discrepancy between political engagement and political involvement was that many students have not yet formed strong attachments to either major party.
"Many students are still in the process of formulating their own political beliefs, and very rightly don't see the world as a black and white spectrum between two parties," he said.
Ball echoed this sentiment, saying, "College students are idealists — we are still identifying our principles and exploring the manifestations of our values in policy decision-making."
Students surveyed did not show a great lack of faith in the political system as a means of improving the world around them.
Eighty-seven percent of students consider political engagement to be an effective way of solving important issues around the country, and 84 percent consider political engagement to be an effective way of solving problems in their own communities.
Fifty-six percent disagreed with the claim that political involvement rarely has tangible results.
The discrepancy between students' confidence in the effectiveness of political activity and their actual level of political involvement is one of the most surprising findings of the survey, said Peter Buttigieg, a Harvard faculty member who worked on the survey.
This is the third annual Institute of Politics survey on this topic and it was designed in large part by Harvard undergraduates, said Peter Buttigieg, a faculty member and one of the chairs of the working group that created the survey.
The survey of 1,200 randomly selected students nationwide was conducted between Oct. 18 and Oct. 27.
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