College Poll Finds Spirit of Activism : Students: A survey of freshmen nationwide shows they are becoming more interested in liberal causes and protest movements. But most favor the death penalty and oppose legalizing marijuana.

The era of self-absorbed partying on American college campuses may be ending and a revival of political activism among students could be ahead, according to a study to be released today by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute and the American Council on Education.

In contrast to the marked conservatism on campuses during the Reagan years, college freshmen around the nation are showing more interest in protest movements and in many liberal causes, especially the environment and abortion rights, the annual survey showed. However, students strongly support the death penalty and anti-drug measures, and most see getting rich as very important.

“I think that on most of the large social issues these students have clearly moved away from a conservative position with the very specific exceptions of crime and drugs,” said Alexander W. Astin, higher education professor at UCLA and director of the survey.

“I see more of a sense of unease among students about the way things are going in the society,” he said.

About 26% of freshmen who began college in fall, 1989, reported that helping to clean up the environment is a “very important” life goal, compared to about 16% three years ago. But the portion is still well below the nearly 45% during the ecology movement of the early ‘70s. Support for legalized abortion jumped to about 65% from the average of 56% in recent years. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of students want to limit government spending on the military and establish a national health-care system while fewer want to prohibit homosexual behavior, the survey found.

An all-time high of 41% of the students surveyed last fall reported that it is very important that they influence social values, compared to 36% in 1987, 31% in 1982 and 34% in 1970. And nearly 20% reported that influencing the political structure is an important life goal, compared to 16% in 1987 and 18% in 1970.

About 37% of current freshman said they had participated in organized demonstrations the year before entering college, about double the percentage during the late 1960s. Meanwhile, 6.3% reported that there is a good chance they will participate in campus protests, up from 5.4% in 1988 and 4.7% in 1967.

Lee Butterfield, an official with the University of California Student Assn., said a recent upturn in campus activism, particularly against alleged racism, appears to mirror the survey results.

“The social consciousness issues that were neglected in the last eight years finally seem to be coming to a head. There was sort of a Reagan honeymoon. . . . But students are seeing more that there is a two-tiered system in America” and want to get involved in helping to ease homelessness and poverty, he said.

At Stanford University, Juan Yniguez, assistant dean of student affairs, said that concerns about global warming, ozone depletion and destruction of the rain forests--along with heightened sensitivity to minorities--have pushed young people into greater activism than three years ago.

“I’m not sure we can call this a new generation, as it was in the ‘60s,” he said. “But it could turn out that way.”

However, the survey makes clear that any increased social activism will not come at the expense of career success. Three-fourths of the current freshmen reported that becoming “very well off financially” is very important to them--about the same number as during the last four years but nearly double that of 1970 during counterculture movements on campuses.

“It’s hard to say this is the end of the yuppie generation, but certainly the upward trend in yuppieism is over,” Astin said.

The percentage of students interested in business careers peaked in 1987 at about 25%. It had declined to 22% by last fall. But that was still remarkably higher than the 10.5% recorded in the 1972 survey. Meanwhile, last fall’s survey showed small dips in interest in computer science and the arts and small rises in engineering and psychology.

Any feeling for legalizing drugs or abolishing the death penalty for heinous crimes continued “to drop like a rock,” Astin said.

Only 21% of those surveyed opposed the death penalty, compared to 23% last year and 58% in 1971. Those who think marijuana should be legalized reached an all-time low of 17% in the new study, down from 19% in 1988 and the peak of 53% in 1977. The study also showed strong growth--to nearly 78% of freshmen--in support for drug testing of all job applicants.

In academic and cultural matters, the survey revealed what Astin called “disturbing trends.” For example, 26.5% of the students said they will need remedial work in mathematics--a statistic that has been creeping up in recent years. Only 10% of the survey respondents said they did extra reading for courses, down from about 16% in the early ‘70s, and those who visited an art gallery or museum during the year dropped to 55% from more than 70% since the study began.

The 24-year-old survey, called “The National Freshman: National Norms for Fall 1989,” involved nearly 296,000 freshmen at 587 two- and four-year colleges and universities.