Student approval of University President Larry Bacow has fallen three points since last spring, though a large percentage of students seem to be indifferent, according to a poll recently conducted by the Daily.
In a survey conducted on Monday, the News Department staff polled a total of 346 randomly selected undergraduates, including 157 freshmen, 110 sophomores, 53 juniors and 26 seniors. Survey respondents were asked to consider several national and campus issues.
One question asked students to rate how well Bacow has served the Tufts community this past school year. Thirty-one percent said they thought he has performed "well," and four percent said they believe he has done "very well." Another four percent responded that Bacow had done "very poorly" this year.
Despite these numbers, however, 51 percent of respondents said that they were "neutral," suggesting student apathy regarding the University President's role in the Tufts community.
"He doesn't make himself very public or accessible to Tufts students," sophomore Tara Dhawan said. "I've never had a positive or negative interaction with him since I've been here at Tufts. The only thing I associate with President Bacow is the Boston Marathon."
With stem cell research, a hot topic in U.S. politics and society today, another question asked respondents whether or not they would support future stem cell research at Tufts that would include the use of embryonic stem cells. Eighty percent, or 266 students out of the 333 undergraduates who answered the question, said that they would support such research.
Only 29 students, or roughly nine percent, said they would be against it with an additional 38 students, or 11 percent responding that they had "no opinion" on the matter.
Another question asked students their opinion of the level of illicit drug use at Tufts. The majority - 45 percent - said that they were of a "neutral" opinion, while 33 percent responded that they believed drug use at Tufts is either "very high" or "high."
Twenty-two percent responded that illegal drug use on campus is "low" or "very low."
The Office of Institutional Research's 2004 Alcohol & Drug Use Report, released in February, revealed that the most widely-used drug among undergraduates is marijuana, with 84 percent of drug users saying they used the drug at Tufts. Misused prescription drugs came in at 19.5 percent, and psychedelic mushrooms at 16.1 percent.
With the rising number of thefts around the Medford campus, two questions asked students about their sense of safety. Ninety percent of respondents said that they feel "very safe" or "safe" around campus. Of the 110 who chose to answer the second question, 56 percent said they feel "very safe" or "safe" in their off-campus housing.
With persistent student complaints regarding the severity of local and University police-enforced early party shutdowns, the survey asked a question on social life.
Forty-four percent, or 144 of the 331 students who chose to answer that question, responded that they feel campus social life is "good." Twenty-four students total said social life on campus is "very good." Not one of those 24 students was a junior or senior.
Thirty-six percent responded that campus social life is "not so good" or "terrible" with an additional 43 students who responded with "no opinion."
In recent weeks a number of Greek organizations have come under increased scrutiny by the administration and a survey question asked if the current Greek system at Tufts contributes to the campus community in a positive way.
Twenty-six percent responded "yes" while 32 percent responded "slightly." Twenty-seven percent said that the Greek system does "not often" or "never" contributes positively to the Tufts community. An additional 15 percent of student respondents said they had "no opinion."
Another question on this most recent survey asked respondents whether or not they were satisfied with the results of the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. Twenty-seven percent responded that they were "dissatisfied" with the results, with 45 percent indicating that they are "very dissatisfied." Only 14 percent said that they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the Nov. 2 results.
These numbers are not surprising when taking into account last year's poll. The March 2004 poll revealed that 67 percent of Tufts undergraduates were planning on voting for the then-unnamed Democratic presidential candidate, with only 10 percent planning on voting for incumbent President George W. Bush that coming November.
In another question that asked if the student had ever gambled, 185 students out of the 310 students who chose to answer the question said that they had.
For the last part of the survey, students were asked to write one to three other colleges or universities that they feel are on the same level, academically, as Tufts. The responses ranged from Boston Community College (two votes) to Oxford University (one vote).
Rounding out the top 10 "peer institutions" named by the students surveyed were: Georgetown University with 80 votes, Washington University in St. Louis with 55 votes, Emory University with 40 votes, Cornell University with 36 votes, Amherst College and Brown University with 35 votes each, Northwestern University with 33 votes, Bowdoin College with 31 votes, Boston College with 29 votes and Williams College with 28 votes.
