First Blue Hen Poll shows high satisfaction

The results of the first-ever Blue Hen Poll, conducted by political science majors, show that an overwhelming majority of UD students are satisfied or extremely satisfied with the University and are likely to recommend it to a friend or associate.

The poll, which was sent to 1,500 randomly selected undergraduates, was launched in March by David Wilson, assistant professor of political science and international relations and Black American Studies, and 13 students in his “Problems in American Politics” class. The goal of the Blue Hen Poll Research Team was to find out how UD students feel about a wide range of political and social issues, including campus life.

Caitlin Kennedy, AS ’09, a criminal justice and political science major, says that being part of the team was an eye-opening experience. “It’s something I had never considered as a career,” she says of polling. “But it’s broadened my horizons and showed me how important polls are to society. This will definitely be a major influence on me.”

The poll’s topics included student-faculty relationships, student social and academic experiences, sources of political information, political candidates and issues, political involvement, attitudes toward social and political groups, morality and religiosity. It was compiled from 643 responses and had a margin of error of 4 percent.

Wilson, a former statistical consultant at Gallup, an organization that has studied human nature and behavior for more than 70 years, says he proposed the poll as an opportunity for his students to apply data analysis skills firsthand.
Eric Nielsen, senior director for media strategies at Gallup, who attended the group’s presentation of the poll results, says he was impressed by the students’ work.

“There are a lot of really bad polls out there, so I really appreciate the lengths to which the students went to get some pretty good polling,” Nielsen says. “There is a lot of data in there that can be studied further. A lot of the real beauty is when you dig down to those deeper levels. You need a good foundation to be able to do that, and they definitely have that.”
The full results are available at [http://udel.edu/~dcwilson/bluehenpoll.html].