Eight hundred and ninety−six students responded to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate 2010 Spring Survey, a notable drop in turnout from last semester's survey, which solicited 1,461 responses.
Students took the survey, which was comprised of 39 questions regarding campus life and pertinent campus issues, over the 12−day period from March 31 to April 11.
The survey received the most participation from the senior class, with 29.2 percent of participants belonging to the Class of 2010. Of the rest of the participants, 23.1 percent were juniors, 27.8 percent were sophomores and 19.9 percent were freshmen.
Overall turnout was approximately 17 percent compared with last semester's 28 percent, a difference that can be attributed to the absence of collaboration with the "Public Opinion and Survey Research" course that last semester helped increase participation in the survey, according to junior Edward Chao, the previous chair of the Senate's Student Outreach Committee.
Chao said that this semester's survey did not reflect an accurate cross−section of students, which led to a less scientific sampling.
According to Chao, the low turnout resulted from insufficient action by senators and a delay on the part of Student Services in sending out the e−mail containing the survey.
"Generally, as the year comes to a close, I would say Senate as a whole is a lot less motivated," Chao said. "It took a long time also for the e−mail to go out."
Chao said, however, that the survey still provided valuable information. "In some ways, it gave us some good qualitative data and good feedback," he said.
One question asked students how connected they felt with campus life on a scale of one to five, with five being the most connected, and 40.8 percent and 29.6 percent of students rated themselves a 3 and 4, respectively. Chao said this question was meant to provide information on the effectiveness of off−campus programming.
"This question was specifically designed to get a little bit more research on the projects that [TCU President] Brandon Rattiner was working on for more off−campus community building and more off−campus programming," Chao said.
Students generally rated themselves as very satisfied with Tufts' level of intellectual programming. Rattiner said he was pleased with this finding.
"I thought that that was actually encouraging and should motivate future Senates to keep intellectualism at the forefront of what they do," he said.
The survey also asked students if they were aware of the resources that Tufts provides to sexual assault survivors, and 52.4 percent and 21.1 percent of students said "no" and "not sure," respectively. In another question, 73.3 percent of students rated themselves as "not at all familiar" with the student judicial process regarding sexual assault.
The survey also included several questions regarding student participation in and satisfaction with the revamped Winter Bash.
Of the 46.5 percent of students who did not attend Winter Bash this year, nearly half said they were uninterested in the event.
The students who did attend Winter Bash rated it positively, with the majority of students rating it as "above average."
Rattiner said that although Programming Board is in charge of planning Winter Bash, the Senate was pleased with the results of the questions regarding the event.
"Everyone in Senate was very encouraged by the positive reviews of Winter Bash and how most people seemed to enjoy it," he said.
The survey also included an area for students to explain why they thought this year's Winter Bash was worse than previous years. Many students pointed out problems with the long lines for the buses and the coat check.
The survey included an area for students to suggest restaurants that should be added to Tufts Dining Service's Merchants Off−Campus Partners (MOPs) program, which allows students to use JumboCash at off−campus restaurants. Suggested restaurants included Anna's Taqueria, JP Licks, Mr. Crepe, Dave's Fresh Pasta, Boston Burger Company and Taipei Tokyo.
"It provides a lot of benefits to our students to be able to use points in a variety of locations," Senator Dan Pasternack, a junior and previous co−chair of the Services Committee, said.
"Hopefully, we're thinking of expanding the program to not just dining merchants but other types of merchants as well, which would allow students to use their points on things from general supplies to food for them to cook with at home," Pasternack said.
Responses to changes in the alcohol policy were presented in a section asking for student ideas for the Senate's Administration and Policy Committee. Rattiner said that the responses are valuable to the committee.
"The findings came in exactly with what's consistent with what we expected and what we hoped for," he said.
Michael Del Moro contributed reporting to this article.
