VOLUME LIII
Friday, January 31, 1969
In Attitude Survey
Frosh More Liberal Than Seniors
Five Guilford College
sociology majors have concluded
that freshmen, when compared
with seniors, are more liberal
overall in Iheir attitudes toward
Negroes.
In a survey prepared for Dr.
Cyrus R. Johnson's Race and
Ethnic class, Gertrude Judd,
Abigail Moore, Paul Morse, Jan
Nichols and Neal Thomas sought
to answer three questions to a
random sampling of 132
freshman and senior males and
females.
The first area of questioning
had to do with rooming with
Negroes: "Since Negroes have
been admitted to Guilford, I
have no objection to having
them room with me." To this
statement, freshmen girls scored
a high 76%, followed by senior
girls with 57%. Freshman boys
were more liberal than the senior
boys, with 55% to 40%.
Seniors overall were more
conservative than the
underclassmen, 47% to 64%.
The freshmen's bent toward
liberalism dropped with the
question of double dating with
Negroes. The freshmen females
scored 69% to senior females'
50%. Senior males were lowest
with only 45%. Of all the
persons polled, 49% said they
had no objection to double
dating with Negroes.
The final question, whether
one would object to dating
Negroes, freshmen girls with
42% and senior males with 31%
scored highest. Freshmen-males
were the most conservative,
tallying only 20%.
Of all the seniors polled, only
27% would have no objection to
interracial dating, while the total
freshmen's count was a slightly
more liberal 29%.
The inclination of senior
females to be more liberal about
dating and rooming with
Negroes, and yet show
conservatism toward dating
them has raised questions among
the pollsters. Another interesting
finding is that senior males j
become more liberal in j
comparisons to others as the j
relationships become closer.
Males, it is observed from the
survey, are more conservative
overall than females.
"We were surprised to find
the freshmen more liberal than
the seniors," said Miss Nichols.
Although the group had not
hypothesized the outcome in
advance, she said they were still
expecting the seniors, after
having been to college, would
have become more liberal in
their thinking. On the other
hand, females are found to be
more liberal in their attitudes
toward Negroes to begin with.
