A nationwide poll last week found college students have a high approval rating of 61 percent for President Bush, which has led the institute to conclude Bush has more support among college students than the general public.
The poll, done by Harvard University Institute of Politics, surveyed 1,202 undergraduate college students nationwide.
On a largely liberal campus, Madison students have different ways of interpreting the findings.
UW-Madison senior Dan Casanova, the coordinator of Students for Kucinich, a group that supports Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, said he is not surprised by the approval rating.
\Perhaps people want to trust him [Bush] because they feel it's their duty to trust the president. However, when it comes to the issues, they don't agree with him,"" Casanova said.
Students indicated they have concerns with the president's policies. Eighty-six percent said they think the Bush administration has been hiding the truth from the public about Iraq. Seven in 10 students said they think finding a job after college will prove to be difficult because of the economy.
UW-Madison senior Frank Harris, chair of the UW-Madison College Republicans, said those involved in his organization ""support the president 100 percent"" regardless of attending a ""liberal"" university. Harris also said ""the administration has to keep some things 'top secret' because of national security"" in reference to the questions surrounding the situation in Iraq.
Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison professor of political science agrees there are gray areas in the study, including the ""plurality of Republicans and a good chunk of independents who were polled,"" leaving a minority of Democrats.
""[The findings are] reasonable as far as the approval rating, but college students historically tend to be pushed by political whims, and are hard to sample,"" Franklin said.
Franklin also said the poll's finding that 71 percent of college students are involved in politics is high.
""I'd like to see some better evidence to back that up. It's a bit of an exaggeration,"" Franklin said.
However, at least two college students remain politically oriented. Harris and Casanova remain focused on the 2004 presidential election.
""[In reference to the 2004 elections] Kucinich is way off the spectrum, and obviously doesn't have a chance. He makes Dean look moderate. And Dean only has a chance if there is a conspiracy [in the White House] erupts, and the stock market plummets, like, 2000 points,"" Harris said.
Casanova strayed from negative comments about opposing parties, keeping focus on his candidate.
""During the first week in November, during this point in their elections, Clinton and Carter had just 1 percent [of the popular vote]. Currently most polls show Kucinich has between 3 and 5 percent of support,"" Casanova said.
