New students came to campus in record numbers this fall — and a lot of them are interested in political science.

The number of incoming intended majors for the program doubled this year, said Professor Jack Gierzynski, chair of the Department of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

“We had the biggest increase of any major,” Gierzynski said.

The University’s banner year for enrollment may have been driven by its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and Vermont’s resilience more broadly. But behind the growth in Gierzynski’s department could be an old trend.

Political turmoil across the country and the world seems to push students toward classes that can help explain what’s in the news. The department saw increased interest in U.S. politics students after the controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election, the department chair said, and 9/11 saw a surge in interest in international and comparative politics.

“Right now, four years of the Trump presidency has really fueled an awful lot interest in people wanting to study politics, government, especially given how precarious our system seems to be right now — the concerns about the health of our democracy,” Gierzynski said.

Students in the department hit an all-time high in 2021, growing over the past year from 407 to 432, according to UVM data.

As senior political science student Marjorie Brown said: “I’ve been able to take classes I am genuinely interested in … We get to observe real-world events with a greater understanding of why political phenomena occur.”

Current events aren’t the only driver behind the growth, Gierzynski said. The department also boasts a strong group of professors and opportunities for hands-on experience.

Many professors are active in scholarly work, he said. “When I talk to parents and admitted students each year, that really seems to catch their interest,” he said. 

The department also facilitates the Vermont Legislative Research Service, a program created and grown by Gierzynski. It allows students to conduct and provide nonpartisan research for state legislators.

“A state legislator came to me and said, ‘How do we get students involved in doing research for the state legislature?’ ... Ultimately, I decided the best way I can handle this is to set it up as a class,” he said. 

Gierzynski said the spirit of academic freedom in the department allowed him to create the program. “It was experimental,” he said, “and it allowed me to create something very unique as a great experience for students.”

Another student, junior Nora Ripley-Grant, highlighted how valuable spending time with faculty in the department has been.

“I have really connected with my professors,” the student said. “It is a really special thing, to have these four years of my life where I am able to learn from experts in a field I am passionate about.”

Those hands-on experiences can often do more for students than a sole focus on “the book learning,” Gierzynski said. Plenty of students have told him they didn’t actually know how government worked until they got involved. And the flexibility of opportunities in the department complements future endeavors.

Gierzynski said students should keep an open mind when looking toward career paths.

“There’s a myth that everybody who is a political science major ends up going to law school,” he said. “That’s actually less than a majority of our students here. This is part of your liberal arts degree where you develop skills that are transferable to almost any profession.”

The work that students do at UVM not only gives them the skills they need for the professional world but also helps connect them to people in the professional world. 

“I had one student who is working for a polling firm who got the job because he worked on a Harry Potter–related polling project as a part of the class,” the department chair said. “The person who hired him saw that he had done work on writing polling questions. It also didn’t hurt that the person who hired him was a huge Harry Potter fan.”

Brady Jalil is a Junior Political Science and Music Major