In today’s Roll Call, the Winston Group’s David Winston writes about how voters are viewing the latest wave of campus protests.
New data from the latest Winning the Issues survey (April 27–29) explores how voters think colleges and universities have handled the protests. Among voters overall, only 19 percent said they approved of how colleges and universities have dealt with the demonstrations on campus, and 53 percent disapproved.
… Part of the reason for such low numbers was the inconsistency of the responses. Some colleges immediately had law enforcement deal with encampments and took academic action as well. Others negotiated with protesters and offered a wide variety of concessions. Overall, the academic leadership was all over the map and lacked a coherency in handling these protests.
… But the reaction to how colleges handled the situation satisfied neither those agreeing nor those disagreeing [with the protests]. Voters who approved of the protests broke even on the handling of the protests, with 40 percent approving and 39 percent disapproving. Those who disapproved of the protests had a significantly higher disapproval (12 percent/71 percent).
Read the rest here.
