The College Fix

Only 1 student out of 12 questioned by The College Fix said ISIS is biggest threat facing U.S.

Many college students consider internal struggles to be the greatest threat facing America today, citing domestic issues such as “income inequality,” “miscommunication,” “poverty,” the “environment” and “cops killing people,” a College Fix survey has found.

In fact, of 12 students randomly selected at the University of Arizona last week to weigh in on what they perceive to be the greatest threat facing this nation, only one student replied with an outside, or foreign, threat. That student said “ISIS.”

For the rest, internal issues such as poverty, healthcare, environmental hazards, the waste of natural resources and similar responses were students’ first reaction to the question of “what is the greatest threat facing America today” – offering an interesting and somewhat surprising glimpse into how millenials perceive their country and its struggles.

“Right now I think we’re struggling economically to keep up with our neighboring countries,” said Jovanna Jimenez, a sophomore studying biology. “We owe too much money to too many countries.”

Kendall Eeliver, a junior studying psychology, offered similar sentiments.

“I think I would have to say how bad our economy is, like we don’t have money for things that we need, like we have so many homeless people and children who don’t get to eat and stuff like that,” Eeliver said.

Poverty and economics seems a popular topic among the students.

“The single greatest threat facing American today is probably income inequality, just for the reason that you can see that not everyone is given the same opportunity that everyone else is and frankly, there is not really an easy solution that I see,” said Daniel Rojas, a junior studying molecular and cellular biology.

For Shannon Wheeler, a junior majoring in elementary education,  a disconnect among the American people is what she perceives as the country’s greatest threat.

“I really want to say ourselves and how we interact with each other just as people, because I just think, maybe this isn’t a threat necessarily, but I think it’s really awful and really sad how closed off people are from each other,” Wheeler said. “When you walk down the street people won’t even make eye contact with you.”

Likewise, freshman Wyatt Taylor offered “miscommunication.”

“Probably like miscommunication within just basically any branch of either the government or even educational purposes,”  said Taylor, a mechanical engineering major.

Another student believed the recent unrest among minorities and law enforcement is the biggest threat of the day.

“Cops killing people,” said Kadeem Allen, a junior majoring in general studies. “The world is trying to handle it … better, trying to do whatever it takes to take the heat off of the cops or not make it like that.”

Other responses included poverty, healthcare, environmental hazards such as unclean water for consumption, hunger and waste of natural resources.

Only one student of the 12 surveyed suggested a foreign policy threat.

“I don’t know, I imagine it’s probably something ISIS, one of those type of things,” Gilbert Aramburo, a senior studying creative writing said. “But I don’t really know much about it though.”

College Fix reporter Julianne Stanford is a student at the University of Arizona.

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