College freshman are more political than ever before, according to a new UCLA survey:

The proportion of students who identified themselves as being liberal (28 percent) and conservative (24 percent) were the highest in decades. Fewer than half said they are “middle of the road” — the lowest percentage measured since 1970.

This means several things, and one of them is that students are far more intellectually diverse than their professors.

Additional details:

Students in the survey were also asked about their views on a range of social issues. The one that most divides the self-identified liberals and conservatives: same-sex marriage. Eighty-four percent of liberals said same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status, compared with 30 percent of conservatives who share that view.
Slightly more than 50 percent of conservative students agree that affirmative action in college admissions should be abolished, while just under 50 percent of liberal students take that stance. The survey didn’t break down the data by ethnic or racial groups.