Hark the sound: Carolina Virtual Voice will help generate needed input

Kudos to student government and the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment for developing an outlet for consistent student input, the Carolina Virtual Voice.

The CVV will consist of 200 undergraduate students and 100 graduate students who will be responsible for participating in surveys and focus groups whenever the need for one arises.

The group is being designed to mimic the University’s ratios for factors such as sex, race, political views and sexual orientation, which is probably as close as anyone is going to get to a truly diverse polling sample without a policy of mandatory random survey responses.

This is an excellent way for student government to quickly gauge the community’s opinions.

When discussing important campus developments such as the South Road pedestrian bridge, student government now can get near-instantaneous student feedback, rather than relying on people to set up public forums.

That’s a vast improvement.

It isn’t student government’s fault that organizations don’t get student input on projects, but any good student body government should strive to make sure the people are heard.

True, the CVV isn’t a perfect group for gathering statistics.

Having a survey sample of volunteers might cause some response bias.

And only student groups have been invited to volunteer members to the polling group.

Perhaps the CVV can be expanded so more students can submit their opinions, better reflecting the diversity of our campus.

Students could be asked to volunteer, regardless of what student group they’re in, if any at all.

But for now, the CVV is a great way to increase student involvement and to better connect student government to the campus.