The Institute of Politics at Harvard University conducted a national poll and found that seven of 10 college students nationwide are divided along party lines about how religion should figure into politics, but both Democrats and Republicans are concerned about the moral direction of the country.

Though students are concerned about the country’s moral direction, they remain optimistic about the country’s future. It also found that 40 percent of students would each support potential 2008 presidential candidates, U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), while 20 percent were unsure.

A group of Harvard undergraduates worked with the staff from the Institute and a pollster from Primegroup, a polling firm, to survey 1,200 students randomly chosen from a database of 5.1 million undergraduates. The margin of error was 2.8 percent.

“The purpose of the poll was to better understand the political attitudes of college students across the country,” said Krister Anderson, junior at Harvard University and student co-chair of the poll.

The survey, the 11th of an ongoing series, examined college students’ attitudes regarding current events such as foreign policy, the war in Iraq, the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, abortion policy, gay marriage, and stem cell research.

“Student support for President Bush is at an all-time low and the war in Iraq is of great importance to college students, as 39 percent listed it as their number one issue of importance,” Anderson said, observing the poll results.

The poll included an 11-question “Harvard Institute of Politics’ Political Personality Test,” a method for assessing college students’ political ideology, which found that college students do not fit the traditional molds such as liberal and conservative.

Instead, college students can be classified as religious centrists, secular centrists, traditional conservatives and traditional liberals. About 40 percent of college students are either religious or secular centrists, whose religious views influence their political attitudes and actions.

The poll asserted that religious centrists, who are optimistic about the future and likely to participate in the elections, would likely be the critical swing vote in the 2008 elections. Religious centrists are typically concerned about the moral direction of the country and make up 25 percent of the college student body, according to the study.

“(College students) are very religious, with 70 percent saying that religion plays an important role in their lives and 25 percent saying they became more spiritual during college,” said Caitlin Monahan, senior at Harvard and co-chair of the poll. “However, 55 percent of students do not believe religious groups should campaign for candidates running for political office and 65 percent do not place much importance on a candidate’s religion when casting their vote.”

She said it was interesting to see that students care a lot about the separation of church and state.

“We tried to focus on questions of interest in today’s political world,” Anderson said. “We learned more about why college students are multilateral and about their views of current events.”