President Obama's approval rating has increased by nine percentage points among college students since October, but a majority of students are still leery of the federal government, according to survey results released on Thursday by Harvard University.
Slightly less than half of the 3,018 "Millennials," or 18-to-29-year-olds, surveyed this spring by Harvard's Institute of Politics were enrolled in postsecondary education at the time. Mr. Obama's approval rating among all Millennials was 55 percent, and his approval rating among students at four-year colleges was 60 percent, up from 51 percent in the last survey, released in October.
This is the first time Mr. Obama's approval rating has increased among young Americans in the past three Harvard surveys, which showed a consistent downward trend. John Della Volpe, polling director at the Harvard institute, said in a news conference that it was unclear why the president's rating had increased more among students than among young adults over all. But he added that campuses were "obviously an important subgroup for political campaigns."
Although the president's approval rating increased, students remained as distrustful of the federal government as they were 11 years ago. In Harvard's first survey, in 2000, 64 percent of college students said they did not trust the federal government to do the right thing all or most of the time. That percentage has remained steady since then.
A majority of college students—83 percent—also said they were concerned either a great deal or somewhat about the United States' overall standing in the world. But 13 percent of students said the country's global status did not concern them much, and 3 percent said it didn't concern them at all.
The findings show that students are more likely than nonstudents to engage in political activity through online social networks. Ninety percent of students at four-year colleges use Facebook, compared with 80 percent of all Millennials. Thirty-two percent of students said they shared their political views on Facebook, and 29 percent said they had used their Facebook status to advocate a political position.
Despite Facebook's prevalence, 60 percent of students said that national newspapers were their most-preferred source of political news. Facebook friends trailed behind national newspapers in popularity, with 42 percent of students saying the social-networking Web site was their preferred destination for political news.
Students were also more likely to volunteer than were nonstudents: 57 percent of college students said they had volunteered in the past year, compared with 34 percent of all respondents. Younger Millennials were more likely to volunteer than older respondents, and the correlation between age and volunteering probably has to do with the number of volunteer programs available at high schools and colleges, Mr. Della Volpe said. Nearly 70 percent of Millennials said they viewed community service as honorable, compared with only 36 percent who thought the same about running for public office.
The survey also found that more college graduates believe they're in a good financial situation than those who didn't graduate from college: 76 percent of graduates said their financial situation was good, compared with only 46 percent of nongraduates.
"Perhaps we're seeing the beginning of a more optimistic view related to financial situation," Mr. Della Volpe said, "but it's a little bit too early to tell."
