University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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An address by Vice President George Bush at the Peace Corps 25th anniversary observance drew dress- for-success supporters and throngs of shouting protesters. Former Michigan activist Tom Hayden, Michigan Daily Editor-in-Chief Neil Chase, activist IngridKock and economics student Douglas Gessener discussed student attitudes with Today Show host Bryant Gumbel in the Diag. attitudes is being assembled by students in Eldersveld ' s American Political Parties class, who inter- viewed 200 LSA sophomores and seniors, plus 40 campus leaders in political organizations, for the study. The scientifically selected subjects were questioned about their past and potential activism, political leanings, attitudes on certain national issues and voting behavior. Final reports are to be finished at the end of April. Much of what has been written recently about college politics was done without benefit of such polls. There ' s been a lot of speculation, said Eldersveld, whose study is a rare source of hard data on the subject. It ' s the first major survey of Universi- ty of Michigan campus politics in over a decade. The preliminary report in- dicates that today ' s Michigan students approach politics and issues in a highly selective man- ner. They ' re reasonably well in- formed about national affairs compared with the general public. Fifty-five percent were able to correctly name their represen- tative in Congress. If one-third of the people in the general public know their con- gressman, you ' re doing well. Eldersveld noted. Interest in local politics, however, is low. Only 18 percent knew who was running Ann Arbor City Hall, and less than ten per- cent voted in the most recent municipal elections. That com- pares to an impressive 7 1 percent of sophomores and 85 percent of seniors who claimed to have voted in the 1984 presidential CONTINUED 12 MICHIGAN ENSIAN Opposite: Kristine Golubovskis

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Blockades and sit-ins at Colum- bia, Berkeley and Wisconsin. Anti-apartheid shanties at Dartmouth and elsewhere. What ' s really happening? Are we on the verge of a new era of mass activism? Or do students care most about upward mobility, money, and Me? Things aren ' t as black-and- white as media cliches would sug- gest. Preliminary results of an elaborate survey of University of Michigan student attitudes and political activism, conducted this year, reveal surprising trends. Campus Republicans now out- number Democrats by a slight margin. And slightly more than half of the students questioned approve of President Reagan ' s handling of his job. We ' re not a wildly liberal or radical campus by any means, said Political Science Prof. Samuel Eldersveld, who designed the survey. I think this is a relatively conservative campus. But the students of 1986 are not as far removed from the Tom Haydens of the 1960s as it might seem. According to the study, a considerable minority of Michigan students are currently involved in some sort of political activism, and under certain cir- cumstances, that minority could quickly become the majority. The students are not really ex- plosively active, said Eldersveld, a longtime pollster in his 40th year at Michigan. But one senses that that ' s not the whole story. The whole story on campus CONTINUED Michigan ' s campuses contain an eclectic some say confused mix of architectural styes. Amid the monumental, there is much of architectural interest on a smaller scale. Ornament takes innumerable forms, like the Law Quadrangle gargoyles or the dainty Art Deco-inspired turret atop the Student Publications Building. Tappan Hall ' s handsome Post-Modern addition, opened in the fall, is respectful of its surroundings. Opposite BillMareh PROLOGUE 11

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FOfl STATE TERRORISM UNWELCOME BUSH !