Respondents to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's most recent survey cited dissatisfaction with the university's residential facilites and overwhelmingly supported the addition of a third day to the fall reading period.
But the Senate received markedly fewer responses than usual to the questionnaire, which it administered between March 10 and March 30. The survey elicited 852 complete responses, down from the 1,327 of the Senate's November survey.
The decline in participation may be due to the fact that it was administered in part during spring break, when "people [weren't] necessarily checking their e-mails," junior and TCU President Neil DiBiase said.
The majority of respondents were underclassman liberal arts majors living in on-campus housing. Members of the senior class made up only 15 percent of the respondents. Women replied in significantly greater numbers than men, accounting for 59 percent of respondents.
Respondents highlighted the renovation of facilities as the most important issue facing residential life at Tufts, with 26 percent indicating it as the number-one priority.
Greater availability of on-campus housing and better upkeep of facilities ranked second and third, respectively, garnering 22 percent and 20 percent. Out of the five choices, "an improved sense of community" ranked lowest with 16 percent.
Eighty-one percent of respondents supported adding an additional day to the fall reading period, which is currently two days long.
In light of the strong support for this change, DiBiase said the Senate should push for it even though academic calendars are set years in advance. "Students overwhelmingly support adding a day to the reading period, and the Senate will, hopefully, effectively advocate for that change," he said.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said that, of all on-campus advertising, they paid the most attention to that of TuftsLife.com. Twenty one percent said they paid the most attention to Facebook.com's advertisements.
One survey question sought to determine whether students supported the creation of "a new space on campus dedicated to the diversity of the student body, which would provide a physical space for leaders of culture houses to collaborate and program." A slight majority of respondents said they were indifferent. Thirty-three percent supported such a move, and 17 percent opposed it.
Sophomore TCU Treasurer and Student Outreach Chair Scott Silverman, who directed the survey, said he found the response to this question surprising. The level of indifference depicted in the results conflicts with the amount of support he has witnessed for improving campus diversity, he said.
DiBiase thought the question's wording was flawed. "The question was a little ambiguous, and that might have been a reason for the ambivalence in the results," DiBiase said, adding that a lot of campuses have been building "multicultural spaces" to emphasize diversity in the student body.
He said the Senate included the question to get a general sense of students' opinions on the subject and that the TCU hopes to expand upon that research in the future.
Students were also asked to indicate the amount of money they spend monthly on out-of-pocket student programming.
Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they spent $50 or less a month on programming, and about 10 percent said that they spend between $50 and $100. Three percent said they spend over $100 a month.
DiBiase said he was surprised by these results.
"I think something that's not discussed a lot on campus is the amount of costs students are paying," DiBiase said. "I don't believe that anyone's experience should be impacted by their inability to, say, pay $7 for tickets to a show."
Students were also asked if they thought the TCU Senate made a difference on campus. Fifty-eight percent said yes, about 32 percent were unsure and 10 percent said no.
Silverman said that this is one concern the Senate struggles with the most. "We ask that question every time we put out the survey and we see pretty much the same results every time," he said.
The treasurer hopes the Senate will have a redesigned Web site by next semester. He feels this would improve the student government's accessibility and transparency. The site would include individual Web pages for each Senate committee.
The final question of the survey asked whether students were interested in hearing about the progress of the Senate. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said yes, and 43 percent said no.
