After two and a half years of work, the implementation of Tufts Polls, an online Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate initiative to survey student opinion, has yet to occur. Senators have been forecasting for the last six months that the launch of the surveys is imminent, and after several delays this semester, a proposal on how to conduct the polls will be voted on at next Sunday's Senate meeting.
Tufts Polls will use special computer software to run web-based, scientific surveys of the student body to determine student sentiment on various issues. Senate Allocations and Budget chair Andrew Potts and Senator Jill Bier attended training sessions on the software earlier this year with the intention of having the project up and running in early fall.
Institutional Research Director Dawn Geronimo Terkla, who will work with the Senate to conduct the polls, explained that debate over the technicalities of polling accounts for much of the delay in their implementation. "We still need to talk to [the Senate] about its methodology. We need to know the given population size and need to calculate numbers to get an accurate sample," Terkla said. She stressed the need for Tufts Polls to be accurate.
In order to implement Tufts Polls, the Senate must pass a proposal governing their usage. That plan will be voted on this weekend, and Potts said that the polls will be ready to go as soon as it passes.
Once the initiative is launched, a software obstacle may bring questions as to the accuracy of poll results. Right now, the software enables students to go to a website and cast their vote, but it has no login screen to prevent individuals from voting more than once. "We're just waiting for the company to make up a new version that will have a login process," Potts said. "It wouldn't be scientific until we get the login process working properly.
The delay in the implementation of Tufts polls has brought into light the larger issue of the Senate following through on the promises it makes to the Tufts community. The idea for Tufts Polls originated during the 1998-1999 TCU presidential campaign. After former President Jack Schnirman failed to realize his goal, the next Senate president, Larry Harris, did much of the legwork to get Tufts Polls close to its present status. Harris received little support from the Senate as a whole last year, and at times worked on Tufts Polls single handedly. "Nobody else in the Senate was interested. When the software was finally delivered, we did trial runs and that didn't occur until second semester [last year]," Harris said.
Last month, Harris said that Tufts Polls would be ready for surveys and voting in April 2000. "It took longer than what we expected, but we are glad that we will have it up by the next coming month," Harris said.
Potts explained that the reason Tufts polls were not implemented during the Harris administration was that Harris had difficulty finding a cost-effective way to conduct them. He decided to team up with members of the administration and the Department of Institutional Research, but it took longer than expected to work out the details of the partnership. Potts also said that, when the idea was originally proposed, it was well ahead of its time, and that the technology to conduct them did not exist at the time.
"It takes time, it takes a lot of meetings, and it takes a lot of logistics," Potts said. "Right now, they exist. When I tell you they're ready, they are ready."
The Senate has not made any provisions yet for students without computers or who don't use Tufts' Emerald e-mail system to participate in the polls. Without anything finalized, it could still be some time before Tufts Polls is running and surveys are sent around campus. Another problem stems from the lack of continuity of senators working on the project, as it has passed through many hands since it was originally proposed.
Despite these obstacles, both Senators and the Department of Institutional Research are confident that the polling will soon begin. "There has been a variety of leadership in the Senate, but I think this can really happen this time," Terkla said.
One key feature of Tufts Polls that the senators have advocated is the potential use for conducting student government elections online. While the Senate must remain independent from the election process, senators say that they are more than willing to share the software with the Elections Board (ELBO). However, there is no reference to this in the latest edition of the Tufts Polls bylaws, and a change would involve difficult bureaucratic maneuverings. ELBO Chair Bruce Kessler said that the Senate has yet to talk to ELBO about ways to share the polling system.
The Tufts Polls software cost nearly $6,000, which was paid for with a combination of funds from the administration and the Student Activity fee. The Senate will have sole power to govern the use of the system.
