Where do They Stand on Societal Issues?
St. Olaf freshmen are somewhat more liberal than the national norm for freshmen. Current St. Olaf students indicate a slight increase over 1987 freshmen in both the liberal view and the conservative view, while fewer label themselves middle of the road. insert pies St. Olaf freshmen are much more in favor of abolishing the death penalty and raising taxes to reduce the deficit than other Protestant highly selective colleges and the national norm, while less likely to believe that a married woman’s activities are best confined to the home and that homosexual relations should be prohibited. The national trend over the last 5 years has been an increase in support of legalizing marijuana, while support for legislation to outlaw homosexuality reached an all time low. “Crime and punishment” issues reflected conservative trends nationally–decreased support (20%) for abolishing capital punishment and an all time high support (73%) for the proposition that “there is too much concern in the cour
