Bacow's approval rating drops over last eight months

A Daily poll showed President Larry Bacow's student support has slipped over the past eight months. In addition, students have noticed a downturn of social life compared to last year.

The Daily polled 295 students, randomly selected during the open block last Wednesday. Polling locations were at the campus center, both dining halls, Brown and Brew, Tisch library, and the Eaton Computer Lab. The margin of error is approximately 5.1 percent.

Survey respondents were asked to rate a number of campus and national issues. Their responses were on a scale one to five. The numbers corresponded respectively to a response of "strongly disagree," "somewhat disagree," "neither approve nor disapprove," "somewhat agree," and finally a five ranking as "strongly agree."

Compared to a Daily poll from March of last academic year, Bacow has seen a general downward shift in support. 22 percent of the campus disapproves of Bacow's performance and 33 percent approves. 44 percent neither approves nor disapproves.

At the margins, Tufts has also seen a shift. While 14 percent of the campus said they "strongly approved" of Bacow's job performance in March, only three percent did so last week. The number of people "strongly disapproving" of Bacow's job performance also nearly doubled to six percent of the campus. That change is, however, within the poll's margin of error.

In addition to Bacow losing student support there was a clear criticism of campus social life. When upperclassmen were asked how they viewed campus social life compared to previous years students responded by rating it an average of 1.8. That response is between "somewhat disagreeing" and "strongly disagreeing" that the campus social scene has improved since last year.

Again, there was a male-female split as more than 50 percent of males strongly disagreed. Conversely, just over 40 percent of females did the same. As a whole, 73 percent of the student body disagreed with the statement that social life has improved.

Though the poll cannot show causal factors of survey responses, sophomore Rebekah Seabury feels that this split may be due to Greek life. "Guys are much more critical of the policy because fraternities are much bigger here than sororities"

Similar results were found in the alcohol policy. Almost 61 percent of males disagreed with the school alcohol policy, and 54 percent of females did. The difference lied in degree. Of those who disagreed 40 percent of males strongly disagreed while only 16 percent of females strongly disagreed.

Sophomore Ben Alexander said the overall social policy drop is a reflection of multiple factors. "Between the stricter alcohol policy and the crackdown on Greek life, it is no wonder that students are becoming increasingly frustrated with the monotonous social life on campus."

When asked about student outreach from the administration students were relatively indifferent. The distribution was close to normal with more than 40 percent of students indifferent.

However off-campus students feel less of an outreach as they rated this aspect of administrative policy at a 2.6.

Junior Jordan Edwards, who lives off campus, did not miss Tufts oversight. "I would prefer the University left me alone. Outreach is overrated," she said.

The smoking policy, another change for this year was better received than the new alcohol policy.

In terms of quality of life 55 percent of students felt the smoking ban improved dorm life. This falls in line with the results from last year when more than sixty percent of students supported to some extent the banning of smoking in dorms.

But Sophomore Derek Fehrer said the smoking ban is obtrusive. "There was never a problem before with smoking in the dorms. Most smokers would go outside anyways. This only inconveniences the smokers while improving life for no one."

However, as with before, there was again a male-female disparity. 26 percent of males disagreed while only 8 percent of females did.

The final question concerning campus policy was on graduate student unionization. A significant portion of the respondents were unaware of this initiative, and most were indifferent with 64 percent of students saying they neither disapproved nor approved.

Additionally, the survey included questions about national policy. The resounding majority of students disapproved of Bush's actions in Iraq. Almost 40 percent of students gave him a one. However, between men and women, 75 percent of women disapproved of his actions while only 58% of men did so. Only 15 percent of students approved of his actions.