Thursday, November 5, 2009
A recent survey sent to students regarding alcohol use is flawed, and should not be used to influence alcohol or housing policy decisions made by Student Senate or the administration.
Members of the student-run committee to combat alcohol abuse at the University of Kansas and investigate related policy e-mailed a survey on Oct. 22 to students enrolled at the Lawrence campus about their alcohol habits and thoughts on alcohol education. The e-mail from the committee stated the intent of the survey was to “recommend whether any changes to existing alcohol-related policies should be made.” However, it should not be used for this purpose, because the survey methodology might cause some of the information gathered to be flawed.
One of the issues the subcommittee was supposed to examine involves student housing officials being able to enter residence hall rooms without permission in instances of students violating housing policy, which includes alcohol use.
The survey is self-selecting, able to be completed more than once and also open to student housing employees if they are enrolled at the Lawrence campus.
A self-selecting survey is one is which the individual chooses whether to take it. Therefore, students who have a greater interest in the subject will be more likely to take the survey, thus creating an unbalanced response.
“It concerns me only if students abuse it,” said Emily C. Williams, Overland Park graduate student and chairwoman of the committee, “but I am not of the opinion that it is going to do more harm than good.”
The survey gathered more than 1,800 responses, with most responses from seniors, Williams said. This highlights a problem with any statistics the survey gathered; the survey was not distributed randomly. All surveys have some margin of error because of dishonest participants, but when the results come only from those who choose to take the survey, the data is further skewed.
Another problem with the survey is its anonymity. Students taking the survey do not have to give their name or KUID, allowing them to take the survey more than once. Students who work for student housing, such as resident assistants, can also take the survey.
The committee made the survey anonymous so students would feel more at ease about giving away private information, Williams said. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible to know if students are abusing the survey to create false opinions.
The committee plans on sending out the same survey again to all students and particular group listservs, so students may be reminded of the survey.
“The more times that students get the survey and the more time they have they ability to click on the link, the better,” Williams said.
However, this could lead to even more students taking the survey multiple times. In addition, if it is targeted toward particular groups the statistics could be skewed to reflect their activities.
The survey, however, does allow for some good input. The final portion of the survey uses open-ended questions to solicit student opinions on alcohol policy and education at the University. However, depending on who is answering these questions, they could still be from a biased source. For example, a student housing employee could be commenting on student housing policy multiple times.
The statistical questions from the beginning of the survey will be passed on to the administration and could be used in reports on the campus’s alcohol activity, Williams said.
This survey has too many potentially confounding problems to be an accurate source of information. These problems should be rectified or this unreliable data should be disregarded.
Students should attend the committee’s next meeting at 7 tonight in the Jayhawk Room of the Kansas Union to voice their opinion on the survey and other alcohol-related policy.
— Caitlin Thornbrugh contributed reporting for this story.
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