While Vice President Kamala Harris secured the win in the first-ever non-scientific election night survey created by the Fairfield Mirror/Rearview, former President Donald Trump prevailed on the social media app Fizz, and won by larger margins.
In the Fairfield Mirror/Rearview poll, out of 488 respondents, 45.1% stated they would vote for Harris and 36.7% would vote for Trump, while 16.6% were undecided or would vote for a different candidate. Even though Harris won the vote, 33.3% of respondents identified as Republican, 31.6% as Independent and 30.2% as Democrat.
On Fizz, after the Rearview posted the results of the collaborative survey asking for feedback, students swarmed the comments in response. One Fizz reads,“Basing off [the] students who respond to the annoying emails, I can assure you this is wrong,” in reference to the survey outcome. As a result, student polling began on Fizz.
As of Sunday evening, one of the Fizz polls had received 2,674 student responses, with Trump winning 61% of votes and Harris with 39% of the votes.
Students on Fizz seemed overwhelmingly pleased with the results, with comments stating, “Trump Save America” and “Point proven. Trump 2024.”
As Sophomore John Beam notes in an interview, students may take to Fizz because it insulates their values: “I think there’s a stronger contingency of conservative folks [on campus]. I think they’re more unified. That’s how I feel when I talk to kids around campus.”
He continues, “It seems to me through polling on Fizz and social media, that there’s mass support for Republicans on campus,” he states.
Per the Fairfield Mirror/Rearview anonymous non-scientific survey, many Republicans on campus believe that the campus environment is conducive to free speech. 69.8% of Trump voters believed the campus “allows for free political speech,” compared to 48.6% of Harris voters.
However, in classroom environments, Republican students strongly believe the opposite and do not speak up politically for fear of retribution from peers or unfair grading from their professors: “Yes, I believe among students it is allowed for free political speech. However, in the classroom environment with professors, it is not so much the same. Most professors are passionate about their political views and sometimes push it on us,” a survey respondent contributes.
Another survey respondent added, “Depending on the professor you might not feel comfortable talking about your views in case of your grade being affected.”
Professor of Sociology Peggy Delfino believes that classrooms can be safe spaces for students to reflect on politics, “no matter what choice they’re making.” She states, “It’s my goal to create a space for students to be able to think about and reflect about their political choices no matter what choice they’re making.” She also said the overall climate of teaching during the election has been “challenging.”
The majority of Fairfield Mirror/Rearview poll respondents noted that the student body is primarily conservative. However, even with this fact and Republican students’ belief that the campus allows for free political speech, they still report a sense of fear when expressing their political opinions.
“I think that despite the student body being largely Republican, there remains a fear of standing up and saying that. Despite many thinking the campus is right-leaning, I feel that [D]emocrats are safer to say what they believe without fear of punishment or bias from professors.”
That same survey respondent also refers to Black Lives Matter flags and LGBTQ+ Pride flags hanging in faculty offices and the discomfort many conservatives feel because of the message those flags promote: “Just walk the halls of Donnarumma and every other door has stickers/signs that essentially scream ‘I’m voting Democrat, you’re a bad person if you don’t.’”
The respondent continues, “One window sign, visible from the Tully, particularly bothers me. ‘Love Democracy? Vote DEMocracy.’”
That student believes, “That sign/professor is telling us who to vote for, not inviting us to have constructive conversation or opening a space for conservatives to feel safe to speak.”
Conversely, given that both Harris and Trump voters maintain that the student body is largely Republican, Harris voters instead believe that their free speech is challenged when among their peers, but not in the classroom: “I don’t feel scared to speak my more democratic views, I think the professors make it comfortable to speak my views in class especially.”
Moreover, another survey respondent noted feeling fear of judgment because of the student body’s demographics: “Fairfield does not feel safe for anybody other than white male conservatives. While I’m able to speak freely about politics in certain classes, I know in most scenarios I cannot for fear of being judged.”
Harris voters also scrutinized Fizz’s role in offering a platform for political free speech, given that an overwhelming majority of users are conservative: “I feel like just from what I see on Fizz there is no conceivable way for there to be free political speech from both sides on campus,” a response stated.
Another student challenged the lack of diversity on campus and the student body’s misuse of the school’s religious affiliation: “People have labeled Fairfield as a ‘conservative Catholic school’ but the Jesuit mission is not conservative at all! There seems to be a disconnect between the school’s mission, and what a portion of the student body conflates ‘Christian values’ with.”
The response continued, “It does not help that there are not many LGBTQ+ students or people of color on campus to discuss their experiences. The extremity of ignorance is on display on Fizz and it is demoralizing.”
However, even though students surveyed felt fear of retribution from students and faculty for their political beliefs, ultimately, the majority believe that there is free political speech on campus. Two-thirds of Trump voters surveyed “Yes” for free political speech, and just under half of Harris voters responded the same—even though their comments offer somewhat contradictory statements.
Another sentiment that the Fairfield Mirror/Rearview non-scientific survey captured is political apathy. Of the 16.6% of students who were undecided or would vote for another candidate, the majority of students, 36.4%, leaned towards not voting at all. Additionally, 29.9% leaned towards voting for Trump and 19.9% leaned towards voting for Harris.
A student response captured that fact, stating, “Politics are not big on campus so students may feel like an odd one out for being involved.”
Non-scientific Survey Demographics
As reported by The Mirror, in Fizz polls in the past, the class breakdown has been overwhelmingly first-year students, with over half of Fizz users being first-years.
The Mirror/Rearview non-scientific survey also noted that primarily first-years responded to the survey. 40% of respondents identified as first-year students; sophomores accounted for 21% of respondents, junior students accounted for 17.8% and seniors accounted for 14.3%. 7 percent of respondents are graduate students.
Moreover, for those who elected to share their gender identity, 68.5% identified as female and 30.5% reported being male. Three graduate students identified as non-binary or gender non-conforming.
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