University Times

Belief in extraterrestrial life. Access to the Internet. The presidential election. These are some of the topics on the minds of this year's entering freshmen at the University of Pittsburgh. Respondents to Pitt's annual survey of incoming freshmen expressed opinions on these and a variety of other topics ranging from violence on television to race relations. Here's what the survey found:

* Sixty percent of the respondents think there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, with men (67 percent) more likely than women (55 percent) to hold that opinion.

* Sixty-one percent of the women students think there is too much violence on television, but only 37 percent of the men share that opinion.

* Race relations in the U.S. have gotten better according to 36 percent of the respondents, while 27 percent feel they have gotten worse. The remaining 37 percent are undecided.

* If the presidential election were held today, 50 percent of the students would vote for Bill Clinton and 18 percent for Bob Dole, while 32 percent said they would vote for neither candidate. President Clinton's popularity was stronger among women, with 52 percent indicating they would vote for him versus 14 percent for Dole. Among the men, 45 percent indicated their support for Clinton and 24 percent supported Dole. * Eighty-one percent of the students believe in God; 8 percent do not; and the remaining 11 percent are not sure.

* Ninety-one percent of the women and 79 percent of the men agree that women should be allowed to serve in combat roles in the armed forces.

* Eighty-one percent of the men and 69 percent of the women support capital punishment.

* Among the men, 60 percent are regular newspaper readers and 33 percent access the Internet on a regular basis. Among the women, 48 percent are regular newspaper readers and only 20 percent are Internet users.

* Eighty percent of the students expect to be better off than their parents when they reach their parents' age, and 83 percent believe that being happy in one's job is more important than making a lot of money.