From the further pulling of federal grants to the executive order that bars students from coming to the US to study at Harvard, the Trump administration has focused more and more of its attention on higher education to the Ivy League institution. As we saw several weeks ago when we looked at data from the April 8-10 survey for Winning the Issues, there were large gaps between the shares favorable to colleges and universities (65% favorable) and Ivy League universities (44% favorable), which also played out across party. As shown in the table below, this also plays out across ideology and generation.
As with voters overall (65-24 favorable-unfavorable), colleges and universities have a favorable brand image across conservatives (52-41), moderates (66-18) and liberals (84-10). By generation, millennials and Gen Z (71-17), Gen X (60-28) and Baby Boomers/older (65-28) also have overwhelmingly favorable views of colleges and universities.
But when it comes to the Ivy League (44-38), the picture changes. Though liberals still unsurprisingly have a favorable view of the Ivies (60-23), it is still 24 points lower than the share favorable to colleges and universities (84%). The Ivies are under water with conservatives (28-57); the share of conservatives favorable to the Ivy League (28%) is also 24 points lower than the share favorable to colleges and universities overall (52%). As for moderates, they do not clear the 50% favorable threshold for Ivy League universities (49-30), 17 points lower than the share favorable to colleges and universities overall (66%).
By age cohort, the story is similar. Millennials and Gen Z also do not clear the 50% favorable threshold for Ivy League universities (49-32). Their share favorable to the Ivies (49%) is 22 points lower than their share favorable to colleges and universities as a whole (71%). Gen X has a slightly negative view of the Ivy League (38-42), also 22 points lower than their share favorable to colleges and universities (60%). Baby Boomers and older have a slightly positive view of the Ivy League (46-40), but the share favorable to the Ivies (46%) is 19 points lower than the share favorable to colleges and universities (65%).
As we wrote in April, Ivy League institutions do not have the same favorable environment as colleges and universities as a whole do. They have a very different starting point with the electorate as they make the case for their preferred policy outcome on any number of issues, and therefore need to make the case about their value much more strongly and broadly. This analysis reinforces that challenge.
