Dartmouth Survey: Liberal Students Would Be Uncomfortable Living with a Republican

A survey conducted at Dartmouth College revealed that liberal students are far more likely to be uncomfortable having a roommate of the opposite political persuasion than are conservative students.

Tolerance. https://t.co/PDKE2NLPmk pic.twitter.com/0Re4DRzH0Z

— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) April 26, 2017

According to the Ivy League school’s student newspaper, The Dartmouth, an overwhelming 45 percent of students registered as Democrats would be uncomfortable living with a Republican roommate. This is compared to only 12 percent of Republican students who claimed that they would be uncomfortable rooming with a Democrat.

This sentiment of openness to politically divergent roommates was not equally distributed across students of different political stripes. While 61 percent of independents and 69 percent of Republicans said they would be comfortable with a roommate of opposing political views, only 39 percent of Democrats said so. Few independents (16 percent) and Republicans (12 percent) said they would be uncomfortable, while statistically Democrats were as likely to say they would be comfortable as they would be uncomfortable.

President of Dartmouth College Democrats Charlie Blatt ’18 said she was not surprised that most Republicans reported they were comfortable with having a Democratic roommate, given that a majority of students at the College are Democrats.

“It’s unfortunate — I wish we had more political diversity,” she said. “I think the dialogue is good.”

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com