This article was co-written by Kendall Carll, Naomi Corlette, Olivia Ma, Aidan Scully, and Stephanie Wang. Data visualizations were created by Lucy Ding.
Continuing from the Winter Poll released in March 2022, the Harvard Political Review sought to understand the views of Harvard undergraduates on a variety of political topics, from campus politics to cultural issues to national policy. This fall, the HPR will be conducting five biweekly polls to assess the change in students’ views over the course of the semester.
Week One of the Harvard Political Review’s Fall 2022 Campus Poll was conducted online via Qualtrics from Sep. 19, 2022 to Sep. 24, 2022 among a random sample of 2,942 randomly selected Harvard College students. We received a 10.2% response rate. Unfinished and late responses were invalidated and excluded from the final analysis, leaving 248 valid responses for an 8.4% valid response rate.
The following is a digest version of the poll results, featuring some of the most noteworthy data points as determined by our writers.
19.2% of Democrats, 3.7% of Republicans say America is headed in the right direction
Traditionally, the prompt “America is headed in the right direction” will produce high rates of agreement among voters affiliated with the party in power, and high rates of disagreement among voters of the other party. Yet, the results of the Campus Poll present an anomaly: only 14.6% of Harvard students agree with the statement, including 19.2% of Democrats and a shockingly low 3.7% of Republicans.
The most plausible explanation for the low agreement rates among voters of both parties is the strong influence of political factors outside of the administration’s control. Notably, the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade negatively influenced Democrats’ general approval towards the direction of the country, as many view the renewed abortion restrictions as a regressive step. Additionally, the Biden administration has frequently been frustrated on some of their most promising policy proposals due to the 60-vote threshold to avoid the filibuster in the Senate, potentially contributing to the low approval rating among Democrats. As of September, inflation remains a top concern among voters of both parties, especially Republicans, perhaps explaining the pessimism that Republicans exhibit.
Another factor that may explain the low rate of Republican optimism at Harvard is the inherent nature of the institution. The campus poll found that only 10.6% of respondents considered themselves Republicans, whereas 67.7% considered themselves Democrats. As Democrats far outnumber Republicans among the Harvard undergraduate population, sentiments of isolation are not uncommon among Harvard Republicans. This disparity likely exacerbates the dissatisfaction with the way the country is headed among Republican respondents.
17% of students say abortion regulations should be determined by states
Though liberals are nearly uniform in their opinions on arbortion regulations, conservatives on campus seem to have more varied stances. When asked whether they thought regulations on abortion should be decided at the state level, only 4.2% of liberals agreed with the statement while 89.7% were in disagreement. Conservatives had the expected majority in agreement with the statement at 60.7%, however, there was also a sizable portion of conservatives who disagreed with the decentralization of abortion regulation (32.1%). Party differences largely followed those of ideology, with only 5.2% of Democrats and 66.6% of Republicans supporting state-level restrictions.
Overall, Harvard students — in no small part due to its overrepresenation of liberals on campus — are largely in agreement that aboriton regulation must be dealt with on the federal level, with a cumulative 73.6% stating that abortion should not be treated as state issue in contrast to 17% saying that it should.
There are also some less obvious sex-driven variations in the opinions on abortion regulation. Two findings seem intuitive: Female independents are less likely to agree with the statement than male independents (30% compared to 34.4%). Another is less obvious: While male liberals universally do not agree with the statement, 7.6% of female liberals believe that abortion regualtions should be a state-level issue.
Opinions on abortion regualtion are ultimately most impacted by how respondents ideologically identified themselves, but the data also bears out that sex plays a subordinate, and occasionally counterintuivitive, role.
HUA approval at 14.6%, lower among first-years
Accusing the Undergraduate Council of financial misconduct and inefficiency, Harvard students overwhelmingly voted in March 2022 to replace the Undergraduate Council with the Harvard Undergraduate Association under a new constitution. Nonetheless, controversies regarding the HUA arose early in the fall semester, notably voiding their fall referendum, which included a proposal to establish a team for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In Week 1 of the Fall 2022 Poll, the approval rating of the HUA sits at 14.6%, with 46.1% of the respondents disapproving and 39.4% remaining neutral. Support was highest among juniors at 18.5%, and lowest among first-years at 9.5%. Compared to the HPR’s Winter 2022 Poll, which found the approval rating for UC sat at a striking 9.4%, the HUA has slightly more support than its predecessor, although it remains no less controversial.
Moreover, there seems to be a positive correlation between the approval rating of the HUA and that of the Harvard University Administration. 72.2% of those disapproving of the Administration also say they disapprove of the HUA. Attitudes toward the HUA, however, deviate more among those that approve of the Administration, with 40.3% supporting the HUA, 32.8% remaining neutral, and 26.9% disapproving of it. On the contrary, those disapproving of the Administration overwhelmingly disapprove of the HUA, with only 6.3% supporting the new student government.
Conclusion
The results of the first installment of HPR’s campus poll highlight the diversity of opinion present on Harvard’s campus. In particular, many issues seem to be affected by the contrast in the liberal and conservative populations on campus. Broad views, such as the future of the country, down to specific issues such as abortion are generally clearly split between the two groups, with a much higher proportion of students agreeing with their liberal classmates.
Campus issues provide similar levels of disagreement, with many students split on the performance of the new HUA. Despite this, after only several months of its existence, the HUA’s approval is around 5% higher than the former UC, indicating that there may have been perceived improvement.
Every other week throughout the semester, the HPR will seek to bring light to shifting opinions on campus concerning a wide range of political and cultural issues, as well as gauge the student body’s thoughts on current events.
Image by Swathi Kella created for use by Harvard Political Review.
