By Paul TakahashiThe Daily Northwestern
Associated Student Government has at least one more poll up its sleeve.
A new committee will measure student opinions on topics such as school spirit and campus safety in a comprehensive random e-mail poll designed to be more scientific than current polls.
“I was sick of seeing poorly-written, poorly-researched polls which provided poor information,” said Matt Bogusz, a Weinberg sophomore and chairman of the Student Opinion Committee.
ASG commissioned the temporary opinions committee Fall Quarter to create an annual poll that Bogusz said he hopes will be administered by the end of Winter Quarter.
“ASG shouldn’t be in the business of providing wrong information to its senators, to its constituents and also to the administration,” Bogusz said. “If ASG is going to continue to legitimize itself to the administration and to campus, it needs to prove it by not continuing to collect poor information.”
To ensure the poll’s scientific accuracy, ASG chose two students with public polling experience to sit on the committee and also consulted economics Prof. Charles Manski, said Steve Gorodetskiy, a committee member.
Committee members will administer the survey through a private polling company contracted by the university at no additional cost to ASG, Bogusz said. The poll will be e-mailed to students chosen at random by university administrators.
Mary Desler, NU’s associate vice president and dean of student affairs, said the HereAndNow polls of the past surveyed only students who visited the site and cannot be used as a truly representative sample.
Gorodetskiy, a Weinberg senior, said the committee hopes to get 200 to 400 student responses. The committee is working with ASG to come up with an incentive for students to take the poll.
“If we get really good data, we can do a lot with it,” Gorodetskiy said.
Results from the poll can be analyzed by demographic factors such as age and whether or not students live on campus, he said. Bogusz said he hopes poll results will help ASG senators bolster the suggestions they make to the administration.
“Our arguments are always made stronger when we have numbers to show the administration,” Bogusz said.
The committee may also host focus groups to further understand student opinion on campus.
“I hope Senate takes advantage of this new opportunity and realizes its usefulness to the student body,” he said.
Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].
