Economic and fiscal conservatism are more common than social conservatism at colleges.
Social conservatism may be less common at residential because residential colleges tend to bring in people from various parts of the region, state, nation, or world, exposing both faculty and students to more diversity than they grew up with. Some areas of academic inquiry may also be “forbidden” subjects for some types of social conservatism (e.g. evolution, economics of prostitution, literature with may have sexual themes, critical study of religion and philosophy, study of other religions, reasons that some states seceded in 1861, etc.).
It is also the case that people of traditional college student age, whether or not going to college, tend to be less socially conservative than the general population.