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Volunteerism, political activity up among college students

By Amy Gage
January 27, 2006

A national survey of incoming first-year college students shows that volunteer activity and political involvement are up, according to a report released Jan. 26 by the Higher Education Research Institute.

Two out of three first-year college students say it is essential or very important to help others who are in need. That trend likely is fueled by the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and by Hurricane Katrina, says Susan Canon, director of Institutional Research and Planning at St. Olaf College.

St. Olaf has participated in the HERI report periodically since 1979 and most recently in 2002, prompting Canon to compare our students with trends nationwide.

* 91.8 percent of St. Olaf students had volunteered during their senior year of high school, compared with 83 percent nationwide.
* 37.5 percent of first-year students at St. Olaf said they were likely to volunteer while attending college, compared with 26.3 percent nationwide.
* More than a third of first-year students nationwide and more than half at St. Olaf said it was very important to keep up with politics. "For both," says Canon, "that was the highest percentage in a decade."
* 16.8 percent of St. Olaf students, compared with 12 percent nationwide, had worked on a local, state or national campaign during high school.

Asked why they were motivated to attend college, St. Olaf students ranked higher than their national peers in citing appreciation of ideas, the opportunity to be a more cultured person and to learn things that interested them.

Almost 74 percent of male college students nationally said they are in college primarily to make more money, compared with 63.7 percent of the male students at St. Olaf. For women, those figures are 81.4 percent nationally compared with 48.4 percent at St. Olaf.

The study also examined the beer-drinking habits of college students. Both at St. Olaf and nationwide, fewer students appear to be consuming alcohol heavily these days compared with two decades ago.

About 34 percent of St. Olaf students reported that they drank frequently in high school, compared with 43 percent nationwide.

To learn more about the survey, visit the Higher Education Research Institute website or read the coverage in USA Today.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.