President Bush has more support among college students than he does from the general public, according to a new poll. Despite his popularity, the poll also says students have lost trust in Bush during the last year.

The poll, conducted by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, found that 61 percent of college students approve of the job done by Bush — about 10 points higher than the president’s approval rating in several recent polls of the general population.

These results were surprising, considering college students generally vote Democratic, said Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science. He said the reason students may give Bush a more positive rating is his image of strong leadership.

“[Students] think Bush has good leadership qualities,” Schmidt said. “They are saying he has more leadership experience than the Democrats they’ve seen running.

“Leadership quality and experience give him these two high ratings. For students, perceived leadership qualities are much more important than whether or not they agree with him on the war in Iraq. I don’t know why — but these are what these statistics suggest.”

The poll indicates students have concerns about the president’s policies, with 86 percent saying the Bush administration has been hiding something or not telling the truth about the situation in Iraq.

Despite the mistrust, students still supported Bush because the suspicion was aimed at his administration, not Bush himself, Schmidt said.

ISU Republican students said another source of Bush’s popularity among students may come from the weak field of Democratic presidential candidates.

“Unlike those running against Bush, he stands up for what he believes,” said Josh Reicks, president of the ISU College Republicans. “He doesn’t try to play both sides of an issue, like John Kerry — who voted in favor of the war in Iraq, but against supplying money to support it.”

Hannah Schoenthal-Muse, president of the ISU Democrats, said of those polled in the survey, the results of the survey came from bad methodology. Eighty-one percent of students surveyed were white, she said. According to the Department of Education, 72 percent of college students are white.

“The survey polled more white kids, and the Republican party is made up of higher-income Caucasians,” Schoenthal-Muse said. “If they had taken a more legitimate sampling of the population, the results would have reflected those of the general public.”

Schoenthal-Muse said it was possible students could find Bush more favorable, but the reason wasn’t a respect for his leadership — it was political ignorance.

“Unfortunately, students tend to be politically apathetic and aren’t aware of current issues,” she said.

Student political ignorance was an issue ISU Republicans and Democrats agreed upon. Reicks said most candidates don’t focus on college students simply because they don’t vote.

“I can’t blame these candidates for skipping universities,” Reicks said. “I wouldn’t focus on students if I were running for office.”

The poll of 1,202 college students nationwide was taken Oct. 3—12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

—The Associated Press contributed to this article.