New student polling group will give feedback

Members of student government are expected to represent the voice of the students. But sometimes it’s hard to know what students think.

To combat low response to random surveys, campus leaders are creating a polling group of 300 students who are representative of the student body and can give consistent feedback on campus issues.

“The role of student government is to represent the interests of the students,” said Jonathan Tugman, student body secretary. “In order to do that, we need to know what they think. Town halls get a lot of anecdotal data, but this will be a constant source of quantitative feedback.”

The group, Carolina Virtual Voice, will be composed of 200 undergraduate and 100 graduate students, selected to represent the demographics of the entire school, from race and sexual orientation to residency and political views.

Members will take surveys organized by student government, which is forming the program with assistance from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

In the past, random surveys by student government have had response rates as low as 21 percent.

Because Carolina Virtual Voice participants have agreed to respond to all surveys, the program will have nearly a 100 percent response, organizers said. Results will be more representative of the student body and a more effective and worthwhile tool for University leaders, Tugman said.

“We are hoping to create a group that we can come to about all but the most important issues,” said Lynn Williford, assistant provost for institutional research and assessment. “This is more than just a source of information. This is a representation of all students.”

Junior Michael Betts used a similar polling technique last year to help create his student body president platform, and Tugman, who worked on Betts’ campaign, decided to revamp the idea this year.

Carolina Virtual Voice uses a ranking system to select organizations that will be invited to contribute. It automatically accepted representatives from 29 groups with more than 200 active members or more than $4,500 in annual student activity.

Fraternity and sorority students, who make up about 17 percent of the student population, will have 34 undergraduate representatives.

Organizers then used a list created by the Office of Student Activities and Organizations that arranges student groups into categories — such as academics, sports and arts — to determine the rest of the survey group’s makeup.

Membership in Carolina Virtual Voice is entirely voluntary. Organizations selected to participate will choose three to four members to represent them in the group, none of whom may be a part of student government.

Graduate students from different departments are being selected with help from the Graduate and Professional Student Federation.

Though not all of the members of Carolina Virtual Voice have been selected yet, Tugman said he hopes to administer the first survey soon.

The program is admittedly statistically flawed, Williford said. There is a possible voluntary response bias because students who volunteer to give their input are more likely to be of an extreme opinion — both positive and negative — than those randomly sampled.

Tugman said he is aware of this, but the benefits outweigh the faults.

“There is no way to counter this, but we made sure to reach out to students that don’t normally have a voice,” Tugman said. “We’re doing this the best way we know how.”

University administrators as well as student government hope to use the feedback from students.

“I think this is going to be a very interesting experiment,” Williford said. “I think students are more likely to respond in these surveys when they know that their input can really affect the school policy.”



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.