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Oct. 23, 1963 THE SKYSCRAPER Page Three Poll Shows Trend Collegiates Go Liberal by I Mamie Art uri Results of a poll conducted by the Educational Review, Inc., testing the political and religious attitudes of American college students, were published in the Oct. 8 issue of the National Review. The purpose of the poll was to identify the influences at work at liberal arts colleges and their bearing on undergraduate values, and to determine how students from different backgrounds are likely to react to their new surroundings. The 12 colleges, selected to typify a certain style of education (small town, church-affiliated, state-sup- ported, etc.) were: Sarah Lawrence College, Williams College, Yale University, Marquette University, Boston University, Indiana Univer sity, University of South Carolina, Howard University, Reed College, Davidson College, Brandeis Univer sity and Stanford University. The sampling was limited to sophomores, juniors and seniors on tKe assumption that freshmen have not had sufficient time to react to their new surroundings. Nearly 70 per cent of all sopho mores, juniors and seniors report a significant change in their po litical attitudes since entering col lege. In all but two of the colleges tested the change has been in a more liberal direction. Preliminary definitions, as used in the survey, were: liberal the political position that tends to ad vocate substantial increases in eco nomic and social activities of gov ernment, or of 'the public sector'. ; conservative the position that tends to recommend solution of problems by 'traditional' modes, generally favoring the private over the public sector. ; socalist the position that advocates, at the mini mum, government ownership of the basic industries. The two colleges that do not re port a more liberal tendency are state-supported Indiana University and predominantly Catholic Mar quette. The poll shows that there is a correlation between the po litical views of the faculty and those of the students, and that the views of the faculty are a determining factor in the flexi ble views of the undergraduate. More than two-fifths of the stu dents who have changed their po sition since matriculation list as the primary agent in their change lectures and/or assigned reading courses. Ten per cent cite per sonal contact with faculty mem bers as one of the influences in their new thinking. Conclusions drown by the Edu cational Reviewer, Inc. show that the faculty exerts a liberalizing in fluence on students but that state- supported and Catholic colleges are less likely to exert a liberalizing influence on students than privately endowed colleges. The lessening of influence on Catholic students could be due to the fact that at Marquette and among' Catholic students polled at other colleges, politics seems to be a topic of only sec ondary interest. Fifty-five per cent of Marquette students are more concerned with Greek Tragedy Opens Foreign Film Festival Mundelein's Foreign Film Festival presented the classic Greek tragedy Electra last night at 6:30 in the auditorium. It was the first of a series of six films sponsored by the modern language department. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival award for 1962, the 110-minute movie was directed by Michael Cacoyannis and starred Irene Papas (as Electra, Aleka Catseli and Yannis Fertis. It was photographed on lo cation in Mycenae and Argos. Euripides' Electra is the story of the avenging of King Agemem- non's murder by his children, Ores tes and Electra. Filial devotion, which drives Orestes and Electra to murder and is thus ironically de nied by them through the matricide, is the basic theme of this Greek tragedy. Agememnon, home from the Tro jan War victorious, is murdeded by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, who then takes control of the Mycenaen kingdom. Age- memnon's son Orestes escapes to safety with the aid of his tutor. Electra, however, is forced to re main at the palace until she be comes of age, at which time Aegis thus marries her off to a poor farmer, reasoning that the sons of a farmer would not dare to plot against their king. All of Aegisthus' precautions are in vain because Orestes eventually returns and with the help of his sister, Electra, avenges his father by murdering Aegisthus and Cly temnestra. Time praised the acting and photography of Electra saying: The performers, most notably Irene Papas who interprets Elec tra, move with the dignity of fig ures in a ritual, speak with a large ness suggesting incantation. And the settings a bucolic vale in Attica, the rude stump of the great palace at Mycenae breathe a legendary grandeur. religion than politics, (as against 27 per cent of all students tested), and only seven per cent are secu lar ( more concerned with politics than religion ). Only at South Carolina is a very slight plurality also more interested in religion than politics. Jewish students from liberal backgrounds become even more lib eral while at college. White Prot estant students tend to be more conservative than Negro Protes tants, Catholics, Jews or non- believers (agnostics and atheists). It was also found that there is a student movement toward the Republican party in southern col leges and toward the Democratic party in small eastern colleges and among Negroes. There is no clearly recog nizable correlation between the wealth of a student's family and his tendency to hold conservative political positions. However, students from poorer backgrounds seem to be more anti-Communist than students from wealthier families. There also is an apparent con nection between a student's reli gious beliefs and his degree of anti-Communism. Jewish students tend to be less anti-Communist than Christian students. Non-believers are still less likely to be anti- Communist and the Negro student tends to favor strong anti-Commu nist policies. Sixty-four per cent of the stu dents support the American two- party system. Twenty-three per cent would favor an alteration for a liberal party and a conserva tive party to replace the current Republican and Democratic parties. However, very few would support a third party. A third party of the radical left would get significant support only at Sarah Lawrence (22 per cent), Reed (17 per cent) and Brandeis (11 per cent). The greatest sup port for a third party of the right comes from South Carolina (nine per cent). A majority, with the excep tion of those at Marquette, have experienced significant re action against the religious tradition in which they were raised. Nearly half of the reactions be gan after students entered college. Protestantism and Judaism have lost more than one-fifth of their student communicants as a result of outright apostacy. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church has lost very few adher ents and on a number of predomi nantly Protestant campuses she seems to have won a significant number of converts. The defections from Protestant ism and Judaism seem to stem from a lack of firm religious upbringing. Only at Marquette do a majority of the students (67 per cent) regard religious upbringing as having a very marked influence on them. Minorities at every other school, ranging from a low of 16 per cent at Yale to a high of 35 per cent at Davidson, re gard their backgrounds as hav ing been a very marked in fluence. Although more than 97 per cent of all the students have had some form of religious training, less than three-tenths think their upbringing has had a very marked effect on their lives. Although slightly more than half of the religious reactions among students occurred before college, a significant minority (over 40 per cent) experienced it while at col lege. Majorities at every college except Williams, Brandeis and Sarah Lawrence rebelled during freshman year. The survey also finds that Prot estant students are most likely to retain their faith if sent to pre dominantly Catholic colleges and most likely to apostatize if sent to privately endowed secular colleges. It is interesting to note that Protestant students are least likely to retain the essentials of their faith if sent to Protestant-affiliated colleges with particular emphasis on courses in religion although it is true that they are unlikely to formally apostatize at such schools. Students raised as Catholics are least likely to retain their faith at small, privately endowed colleges at which the vast majority of the student body is Protestant and Jewish. The Jewish student tends to abandon the basic tenets of his faith regardless of the kind of col lege he attends. For example, at Sarah Law rence, where just over ten per cent of Protestant students have rejected their faith, more than 55 per cent of Jewish- raised students have aposta tized; at Williams, the Jewish apostasy rate is 49 per cent and at Marquette, where the Jewish population is small, 100 per cent have apostatized. Although a substantial majority of liberal arts students believe in the immortality of the soul, only a minority believe in the existence of a God capable of exercising an effect on their lives. Despite this, a majority plan to raise their chil dren in the religious faith of their own youth. Only eight per cent plan to raise their children in a faith other than the one in which they themselves were raised while ten per cent will totally neglect re ligious training. Even among avowed atheists and agnostics, substantial num bers answered Yes to the question, Do you regret that you feel compelled to reject re ligious views, and do you wish that it were possible for you somehow to recover religious faith, even though at the same time it appears impossible? Although only 58 per cent who acknowledge God believe that He will sometime alter the natural course of events to answer a prayer, more than 80 per cent of these students pray. Only 13 per cent of all believers never pray, although many more pray only at a specific crisis. There is a striking disparity be tween the students who affirm in tellectually the efficacy of prayer and students who actually pray. Even at Reed, where only seven per cent of the believers regard prayer as efficacious, 63 per cent pray, including 42 per cent sev eral times a week or more. Panel Probes Role of Sister Sister Mary Carol Frances, B.V.M., chairman of the theology department, will represent Munde lein at The Nun in the College Invitational Conference Nov. 1-3 at the Edgewood College of the Sacred Heart, Madison, Wis. Sis ter will participate in the panel, The Professor-Student Dialogue. Reverend James Mark Egan, O.P., director of the School of Sa cred Theology at St. Mary's Col lege, will give the keynote address. Skyscraper Photo by Eileen Schaefer ROOM FOR ONE MORE seems to be the motto of drivers who arrive late and insist on parking in any available space (even if it is a lane.) SkyKcraper Photo by Pat Krochmal INHALE PULL IN THAT BUMPER. It's a tight squeeze getting out of that space. Illegal parking causes problems in the over-crowded lot at Kenmore and Sheridan.
title:
1963-10-23 (3)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College