Senate to re-attempt student surveys

The nearly five year struggle to instate an effective polling system on campus finally saw signs of progress when two resolutions were passed by the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate three weeks ago. The resolutions, which will enact the survey system, came as a surprise after years of false starts, technical problems, and wasted money on other attempts.

The Senate resolved to pay Websurveyor -- a surveying company -- $1350 for the use of its software polling system for one year. The software will be used to produce and distribute surveys to gauge the student opinion on various issues, according to freshman Senator Dave Baumwoll, who is spearheading the campaign.

This new attempt is similar to that of former TCU President Jack Schnirmann, who introduced the idea of "Tufts Polls" during his 1998 presidential run. After he was elected, he worked with other senators and administrators to select and eventually pay the company Hyperdot nearly $5500 to operate the Tufts Polls web server.

Shortly before the survey program's scheduled launch, a larger company bought out Hyperdot, leading the Senate to switch web servers to Technet, a Tufts-run operation. This initial setback proved to be the first of many. Technical problems were compounded by the difficulty of maintaining interest in a project directed by a constantly revolving group of senators.

Senate Vice President Andrew Potts and former Senator Jill Bier were trained to use the Technet software in 2000, but were unable to use their training because of technical problems with the software, and the project was abandoned. Baumwell reopened the project this year when, without previous knowledge of Tufts Polls, Baumwoll approached Potts with an idea for a survey system.

Although Baumwoll is a freshman and was not a student during past problems, Potts is confident that he is adequately informed on the issue. "I told him the whole story," Potts said. "From the instant [Baumwoll] began working on the project, he had the whole back-story of Tufts Polls. He was working with full knowledge of why Tufts Polls didn't work."

Many technical problems that hindered the usage and statistical accuracy of past surveys have been corrected for the current system. Because the original software lacked a login system, students could plausibly vote an infinite number of times, hence altering statistical conclusions from the data. The current system fixes this problem with a lockout mechanism that will limit the number of times each student can vote, Baumwoll said.

This system is also much simpler to understand than the original one. "The training won't be a problem, and very soon people will be able to operate it," Baumwoll said. "My goal is to have a lot of people know how to use the software so we can institutionalize it within senate so it can always be used," he said.

If the training process stalls, however, the senate has the option of turning to Websurveyors for help. "I feel like the company is watching over us," Baumwoll said. "We can go to them with any questions we have. They're really going to guide us through this."

Another one of the problems encountered during the original project was the large expense incurred from software purchases and senator training. In his approach to the project, Baumwoll tried to get the best bargain possible for the software.

"The only cost we have incurred is the cost of the software, which is a discounted price. It was cheaper than any others we'd seen," Baumwoll said. "[The senate is] always looking to make sure that it's financially responsible," he said.

In the past, responsibility for the project frequently changed hands, which severely challenged it, Executive Director of Institutional Research Dawn Terkla said. According to Terkla, who has worked with the Senate on polling on and off since 1998. "The problem... was that the senate turnover is so rapid that there was no one that could own [Tufts Polls] as his project over several years," she said.

This issue has been addressed by creating a Senate Surveyors Committee. A resolution passed by the Senate earlier this week charges an elected group of senators with overseeing the survey system.

"One of the large pitfalls of Tufts Polls was a lack of organization. No one took it on in the way it needed to be in relation to the magnitude of the project. We try to learn from past mistakes. Now people will be officially held accountable to [monitor] the surveys," Baumwoll said.