More students are majoring in political science and running for public office
Jennifer Lambert thought she wanted to be a nurse.
Then the Parkland school shooting in Florida happened and she watched thousands of young people march for gun control in Washington, D.C., and participated in a walkout at her high school in New Jersey. That was 2018, when national politics were extremely polarized amid Donald Trump’s presidency.
Lambert decided to major in political science instead at Villanova University, which reports a 37% increase in political science majors since 2019.
“I definitely think it has to do with the state of our national politics and how divided it has become,” said Lambert, of Fanwood, N.J. “It was hard for a lot of people to escape politics in the news cycle. Not being able to … is a big reason why we decided to study it.”
This spring, 328 students are majoring in the field, up from 238 in fall 2019, said Marcus Kreuzer, chair of Villanova’s political science department. The department hasn’t seen such a surge in majors since 9/11, he said. Other local schools queried haven’t seen the same rise. Drexel reports a small uptick; it also notes a 20% increase this year in applications for politics majors. Numbers at the University of Pennsylvania have remained relatively steady.
Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/education/villanova-political-science-majors-elected-office-generationz-20210404.html