Reply #51: College students had traditionally been more conservative until late '90s.

[AP]

I think their numbers from 2003 don't tell the whole story.

In 2001 I read that for the first time more students identified themselves as liberal than conservative, and the the theory was that that number correlated with the number of students going to college. Ten years earlier only about 25% of college-age Americans were in college. In 2000 it was closer to 50%. Since most rich kids already were in college, the increase was coming from middle and working class kids going to college, and those are people who are more likely to be Democrats.

So, 58% of college students might be identifying themselves with party affiliations of Democrat or Republican, but I suspect, based on the 2001 numbers I remember reading, a lot of the remaining 42% (who apparently identify as Independents) have liberal views (that go beyond the taxes and abortion rights views in the UCLA study).