During orientation in the summer of 1971, a questionnaire designed to determine the political attitudes of students was administered to the incoming freshmen at the University of South Carolina (USC). In this report this data is compared to national data from 325 other institutions and data obtained from incoming freshmen during 1969, 1970, and 1971. An examination of the data indicates the following trends: (1) USC freshmen are less likely to express a left and are more likely to express a middle-of-the-road political preference than their national counterparts. (2) 1971 entering freshmen at USC are considerably more apt to express a left than a right political preference. (3) In-state freshmen were more likely to express a left and less likely to express a right preference than were out-of-state freshmen at USC. (4) The overall increase in left political preference expressed by USC entering freshmen does not appear to be related to sex or state residency. A more pervasive societal trend is suspected that should be closely watched for its impact on campus life. (HS)