Berkeley Students from 1964 to 1984: What Are the Differences and What Difference Does It Make?

Changes in political preferences and personal goals of a national sample of college students and University of California-Berkeley (Berkeley) undergraduates of the 1960s and the 1980s were compared, using the university's freshmen survey and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's nationwide survey of freshmen. Specific attention was focused on relationships in political preference, life goals, and fields of study for 1973 and 1984 Berkeley freshmen. Findings include: (1) both nationally and at Berkeley, significantly fewer freshmen identified themselves as "liberal" (or "far left") than a decade ago, but the proportion of Berkeley freshmen saying there were liberal remained much higher than the national norm; (2) the sharpest increase in conservatives at Berkeley was among white males, and in 1984 their proportion was higher than the national norm; (3) both male and female Berkeley students were more career-oriented than two decades ago and were more likely to choose "vocational" fields of study such as business administration and engineering; (4) regardless of political orientation or major field, more 1984 freshmen believed it was important to be well off financially; and (5) in 1984 raising a family was seen as more important than 10 years ago, especially by men. (SW)