We had heard that Dartmouth is the most conservative Ivy. But we were skeptical.
When you think about it, to whom exactly are we comparing ourselves? To Brown, with its weird artsy tree-huggers who never leave their rooms? (Thanks, Conan.) Or Columbia, with its hardcore liberals hell-bent on establishing a new world order? Sure, compared to them, Dartmouth can arguably be called "conservative."
Discount those unproductive stereotypes, however, and the question still remains: How can we characterize political leanings at Dartmouth and what do we students stand for?
We wanted to take a closer look at the foregone conclusion of conservatism, so we decided to ask you.
We approached randomly selected students in Collis, Novack, the Hop and '53 Commons and asked them to take our 12-question survey. Of the 153 students surveyed, about 60 percent were female. Although slightly more '15s were surveyed than upperclassmen, the distribution of students across classes was largely representative of the student body.
In examining the political views of students across campus, it appears that while many have very strong opinions, they are largely unwilling to voice them. When pushed to respond, however, you may be surprised to learn that your peers actually feel quite strongly about the issues that matter most to them.
ECONOMY
Neither of us are economic experts. Yes, we know we should be better-informed, but the sad truth is that we just aren't Milton Friedman reincarnate. Are we the only ones at Dartmouth who could probably use a crash course on tax reform and corporate responsibility?
Bill Strunk '12 doesn't seem to think so.
"I feel like people are completely ambivalent until it's time to apply for jobs," he said, using "economic bubble" to describe not a massive inflation spiral here in Hanover but rather our lack of economic awareness until the real world beckons.
But can we really blame Hanover's relative isolation for our personal ignorance? The majority of students interviewed feel that we should be more aware of the happenings of our nation's economy. Not all of us, however, seem out of the loop. "Having so many people involved in [the economics department] on our campus makes a lot of them interested in talking about current issues," Adam Kraus '14 said. "People are always either complaining about the economy or trying to talk about it and figure it out."
INTERNATIONAL CONCERNS
Despite our initial skepticism, it seems that the vast majority of Dartmouth actually have strong opinions regarding what is and isn't important regarding United States foreign policy.
"We definitely know more than the average American," Alan Gottesman '13 said.
As students at the country's foremost undergraduate institution, we certainly hope he's right.
Several other students who participated in the poll said they wished they could have selected multiple answers to this question instead of a single important issue, explaining that they had strong, informed opinions on more than one of the choices given especially, it seems, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and climate change. Pretty impressive, Dartmouth.
DOMESTIC POLICY
This inquiry immediately brought back memories of our high school American history classes, in all their awkward glory. Former President Bill Clinton couldn't have summarized our campus' opinion any better: It's the economy, stupid.
As would be expected, it seems that we are most likely to focus on the issues that directly impact us. Cassidy Griffin '12 certainly agrees, describing our collective acknowledgement of the economy as a "switch" that clicks on when one must finally consider the job market.
"As soon as you apply for a job, people are suddenly aware that the economy sucks," she said.
For students who are told time and time again that they are here to land a sweet job, few things matter more than the country's economic climate.
GAY MARRIAGE
From the survey results, it's loud and clear that Dartmouth students are strongly in favor of gay marriage 90 percent responded that they support it. But then we wondered, are those students who are undecided on the issue or even those strongly opposed to it simply too afraid to express their beliefs?
"There aren't that many people [on this campus] that would willingly put forth that they're against gay marriage," Kraus said. "I think there's a pressure from other people to say that you're for it."
Griffins agreed, adding that "people who aren't [in favor of] gay marriage are afraid to speak up because they're afraid [of] the backlash."
ABORTION
Although 82 percent of students surveyed are pro choice, the abortion debate seems to be one of the most taboo subjects here on campus.
"It's a very hush-hush issue because we have lots of progressivism here on campus, but conservatism is still alive and well," Griffins said.
A few students interviewed indicated that some students like to pretend they have liberal tendencies but deep down they're still harboring Christian Republican values.
According to Kraus, abortion "is not something you talk about there would only be a small amount of people that would be really willing to voice their opinions on campus."
Griffins agreed, adding that given Dartmouth's hook-up culture, "somebody's getting pregnant, but you don't see people walking around with babies."
EVOLUTION
One would not expect the debate between evolution and creationism to be prevalent here at Dartmouth. One student from Los Angeles said he had never met a creationist in the flesh, and sort of figured they were all crazy Christians who needed to have their heads examined. Now all of the Republican candidates except for one believe in creationism.
Perhaps surprisingly, there are a number of creationists here at Dartmouth 21 percent of students surveyed, including some who are majoring in anthropology. According to Griffins, "evolutionism and creationism are not mutually exclusive."
"There are gaps in evolutionary theory that could be attributed to creationism," said Kraus, who is a potential anthropology major. "I'm not staunchly evolutionist or creationist I'm still trying to figure it out."
That's what college is supposed to be for after all developing your own opinion. Yet many students are still unwilling to open their minds and remain set in their own ways. One student who took the survey commented that "the evolution versus creation debate is a really stupid one it's like comparing apples and oranges."
POLITICAL AFFILIATION
To be honest, we're still somewhat surprised by the results of the political affiliation part of our survey falling trap to the Dartmouth "conservative" clich, we thought that many more people would identify themselves as Republicans. Instead, only 15 percent identify as Republicans, while 32 percent identify as Democrats, and another 30 percent identify as independents.
Gottesman was more successful than we were when predicting how this data would play out.
"I think it's pretty much in the middle," Gottesman said. "There's both a strong Democratic and Republican presence. We just wouldn't know because discussion is only centered around politics classes There's no campus wide discussion."
It seems that Democrats are most prevalent here on campus, with Independents coming in close second. As one Independent survey taker put it, "the candidates are homogenous and it's all a lie welcome to the machine."
VOTING
Hearing a variety of our peers' thoughtful opinions, it made us wonder just how many of us actually plan on applying our views to the real world by voting in the next election. The answer: 81% of students surveyed. We weren't sure if the isolation of Hanover would impact the student body's desire to vote, but we are happy to report that the majority of students at the College do in fact plan on participating in the upcoming election.
Several students recalled there being pressure for students to vote in past elections, but is it really enough to push us toward the polling booths?
"If there's a lack of voting, a lot of the time it's not that people don't want to vote," Kraus said. "It's just that there's no polling stations on campus. It just takes time it's the challenge of fitting your priorities as a student with those of being a citizen."
