The Harvard Institute of Politics introduced a comprehensive study detailing the political concerns of college students Tuesday. Students ranked U.S. foreign policy and Social Security as the two issues of greatest concern.

According to IOP spokesperson Esten Perez, IOP began polling college students in 2000 after recognizing students’ disconnect with civic responsibilities, despite having been very active in their communities.

“We feel there was a disconnect between being active in politics and being interested in the political process,” Perez said.

However, findings from this spring’s IOP poll found college students might be moving away from that “disconnect.”

According to the study, a quarter of college students donated time, money or a combination of the two. Additionally, 67 percent of students reported after the last presidential election they were more likely to become involved in politics in the future.

Perez said in 2000, 68 percent of students said politics was important in their lives. In the fall of 2004, that number increased to 87 percent.

“I think it shows it’s simply not accurate that youth are not interested in politics and voting,” Perez said. “They proved it by showing up to the polls this last fall.”

However, such evidence may not necessarily signal a change in the cultural habits of college students.

According to University of Wisconsin political science professor Dietram Scheufele, college students have had erratic turnout patterns in the past, oftentimes dependent on whether the election will have a great impact on the United States or, other times, on the charisma of a candidate.

“The basic pattern in past elections is that most college students didn’t really care about issues all that much,” Scheufele said.

The 1,206-student study also focused on college students’ concerns regarding foreign policy and Social Security.

According to the study, 51 percent of students will tolerate further American casualties in Iraq, should it lead to democracy, and 67 percent of students believe it will take 10 years to establish democracy in Iraq. Twelve percent believe democracy will never happen.

“[College students] have some pretty strong views on foreign policy,” Perez said, “most significant of which is the war in Iraq. Fifty-three percent opposed it — we’ve never had it go above 50 percent.”

However, students’ concerns over foreign policy were not limited to the war in Iraq. Many also showed worries about terrorism. According to the study, 76 percent believed a large-scale terrorist attack would occur and 24 percent believed a nuclear weapon would be used in the United States within the next 10 years.

However, Scheufele said this has long been the case since government officials informed citizens a terrorist attack was imminent.

“The question is how well are we prepared in potentially preventing most of [the attacks] and being prepared if they happen,” Scheufele said. “[Stocking] up on vaccines is basically acting on these assumptions.”

The study also showed many students are worried about Social Security. According to the study, Social Security did not register in polls only one year ago. In this year’s study, 70 percent of students said they are worried Social Security will not be available when they retire, and 63 percent do not think it will provide benefits for their parents.

However, Scheufele worried the phrasing of questions in the study might make it difficult for some students to answer otherwise, since they had to choose between “somewhat concerned” and “not very concerned.”

“Are you really going to say you’re not very concerned?” Scheufele said.

Despite being a well-constructed survey, the study did not allot for how much students actually knew about political issues, Scheufele added.

“People will give you answers on surveys even if they know very little about [a topic],” Scheufele said. “One of the key concerns is people will form attitudes without knowing too much about anything.”