A few offices of the undergraduate student government prepared
to send out a second randomized survey later this quarter, but some
questioned the effectiveness of gauging student opinion in this
manner.
Administered by the Undergraduate Students Association
Council’s president and two general representative offices,
the survey will be sent out to 24,000 undergraduate students sixth
week, said President David Dahle.
The three offices are gathering information and revising the
first survey, said General Representative Michelle Styczynski.
The new survey will include follow up questions on the possible
switch to a semester system, a requirement that increases the
minimum number of units students must complete each quarter to 13,
and student activities in Westwood.
Students were sent a similar survey during tenth week of fall
quarter. The results were distributed to councilmembers earlier
this month.
Dahle said he consulted professors and teaching assistants to
help create the randomized, unscientific survey.
It’s an additional tool that councilmembers can use when
making decisions, Dahle said.
“I wish I had the results before the Iraq resolution came
up; it would have influenced my decision,” said General
Representative Adam Harmetz, who abstained from voting on a
resolution that condemned a possible war on Iraq.
But some councilmembers said there were better ways of obtaining
student opinion.
“The intentions are good … but because the questions are
so broad and because it’s unscientific, it’s not
effective,” said External Vice President Chris Neal.
Holding USAC-run forums would be more effective, Neal said.
“I haven’t seen how the surveys have been
used,” he added.
Internal Vice President T.J. Cordero said he had mixed feelings
about the survey.
“It’s a good way to inquire about student needs and
what issues they want (USAC) to address, but it couldn’t by
itself give full scope of student opinion,” Cordero said.
“Some of the questions make me question it’s
validity,” he added.
Cordero pointed out that categories in the ethnicity question
overlap, and the results are confusing.
Academics Affairs Commissioner Chris Diaz said Dahle and the
other two councilmembers should have brought the survey to council
for approval before sending it out.
“It’s problematic because the questions don’t
define what the issues are … maybe they should have included
links to the actual texts of issues like the Racial Privacy
Initiative,” Diaz said.
The results showed that 70 percent of the students who completed
the survey were uninformed about the initiative, the March 2004
ballot measure that would ban the state from collecting and
maintaining race-based data.
“It surprised and saddened me that so many people were
uninformed,” said Styczynski.
The solid hard facts of the survey should give councilmembers
some direction, she said.
However, Diaz argued that councilmembers should have already had
an idea of student needs when they were elected.
“It’s the responsibility of USAC offices to have
foresight,” he said.
Students had varying opinions on the effectiveness of the
surveys.
“Its a good idea if (USAC) is going to do something …
and there’s the question of if the school will let them make
a difference,” said fourth-year psychology student Rochael
Wetmore.
But second-year undeclared student Brenda Hernandez said
students don’t usually do the surveys in the first place
because of their own unfamiliarity with the student government.
“First USAC needs to better explain what they are and what
they do,” she said.