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Show OPINION Survey results aid in choices SURVEY RESULTS Thanks to the 421 respondents to the fournal survey of opportunity to know what that body does on their behalf. last week. It will help a great deal even though we can't say So, on to the results: that the responses are indicative of SUUans at large, or The most popular of the items listed on the survey was a even of our readers at large. Perhaps they are indicative surprise-to me, at least. It was the Associated Press only of our readers who wanted the chance to win a $250 phot0s. It's nice to know readers like to see these, as they gift certificate badly enough to fill out the survey, rip or cut are they single most expensive feature we purchase, The it out of the paper, and tum it in. We can't even be sure AP news was the next most popular item. that each respondent was honest in his or her responses. T he least favorite of all the features is the political . There seemed to be a few who thought "Let me hurry up columnist Joseph Sobran. Hey, he lives back East so we and fill this out so I can be on my way to that gift won't have to worry about hurting his feelings. We certificate." There were quite a few entries with all 3'sprobably won't run his column anymore this year and t.he few who didn't want to commit to anything- and quite won't renew it for next year. a few Pollyannas out there who thought everything was Generally speaking, the number 3, which corresponds to just great and so filled in all Ss. Then there was one guy neutral, is the breaking point for these items. Those above who put a O by everything, which made us wonder how he that number are generally read/looked at and liked, while even got the survey form to begin with. those below are generally disliked or not read/looked at. At any rate, the results won't sway the next presidential The Os !not read/looked at) are perhaps more damning than election or decide the ending to James Cameron's next film, the ls !dislike very much) because as every communicator but they will help us decide which features to continue in knows, the worst thing he can do is bore his audience. In the paper next year and which ones we'll dump. After all, fact, some may maintain that a 3 !neutral) is worse than a 0, but that'd be difficult to quantify in such a survey. we spend a lot of money every year for these items. Eleven people felt compelled to jot down a comment or So, as you can see from the table at right, some items fell two on their survey form and I'd like to respond to a few of quite a bit below 3 while some were very close and some them. Perhaps most remarkable was the one from someone were substantially higher. who believes that we So here's the deal: should be only positive and We propose that next uplifting in our coverage of year the crossword puzzle losing sports teams; that we appear only once a week. We propose to replace should ignore the losses and the reasons for them. Get the columnists Sobran, COMMENTARY real! This is NCAA Division Maggie Gallagher, Sean I, not Little League. Even so, Gonsalves and Kathleen I don't believe we're overly ...._~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-- ~~~~~---J Parker, perhaps with critical. news or humor rather A second was from a student who wanted to read only than opinion, fort judging from the seeming general lack of student commentary because this paper is for the students. interest in issues of importance, readers would just as soon God forbid this student should be exposed to any thinking see Dave Barry all over that second opinion page. We'll do from those with higher knowledge or experience. This o ur absolute best to maintain the balance between student doesn't want to be bothered with politics or foreign conservative and liberal columnists. We think we do that affairs or social issues from those who scrupulously study now because liberals say we're too conservative and these subjects. With that sage -reasoning, perhaps the conservatives say we're too liberal. faculty should be made up of students and classmates We propose replacing the cartoon strips The Swan should write textbooks. Factory, Muffin, Adam and Charlie. We'll give Stickworld Another was from a student who thought we should some more time since it's only been in twice and it's free of cover only what clubs and organizations did on campus and cost to us. that student activities should be our only concern. This one 1f we hear from enough of you who don't like that thinks that it's not our place to do a story about cheating proposal, we'll reconsider. The ball's in your court. on campus and seems to be one of the few who believe that In other survey items, we found that the great majority of SUUSA stands for "student government officers" and is our readers do indeed read the foumal Monday, Wednesday oblivious to the fact that it is a minority-a relatively small and Friday, but that some miss one of those days, number of students-who take part in student government presumably because they're not on campus on those days. and student activities, and that all students pay student Some, w e found, read the paper on Tuesdays and fees and are part of the student populace and our core of Thursdays, perhaps for the same reason. But, our idea that readership. We publish for all of these people and our many read the paper all five days of the week because they readers make up the majority-a relatively large number of can carry it around and get to bits of it when convenient was borne out as 31 percent of the respondents marked all students. However, to answer that third person, ,the fournal covers five days of the school week. Lastly, in regard to the campus television and radio the activities of clubs and organizations fairly well, I think. We always try to do more and to improve on that son of stations, we found that Power 91 received a 3.15 rating, thing every year and 1 think that this year is the best we've with only 39 respondents noting that they don't listen. ever done. But, I'd challenge that reader to point out a SUTV news did not fare as well, though. Two-hundred college or university newspaper in this state that does a and fifty-two respondents said that they never watch SUTV better job at that. Good luck in that endeavor, by the way. news, while it got a rating of 0.412. It's quite possible, All three of these commentators seem to me to be though, that this is due to a dearth of cable hookups rather somewhat aberrant in tnat they just might be more than to disinterest or dislike. I'll leave it to SUTV to comfortable back in high school, where their newspapers wonder about. would likely be more suited to their tastes. That world, of Thanks for taking part, you 421, whether you did it out of course, is even more artificial than that of a university. your civic duty or a chance to win big bucks. The winner, One non-student (there were 13 who responded, by the 585-65-5662, has yet to show up to claim his or her certway) wondered why we did not include "campus news" on ificate., by the way. the survey. Imagine me now tapping this person on the Now comes the good news for one more student. To be fair, we had to have a second drawing because some 58 forehead while intoning "HELLO... HELLO." I'm sorry, but we don't care if people like or dislike surveys were inadvertently not included in the first reading about campus news. We'll cover it anyway. That's drawing (but are in the tallied results at right). So, to the our job. We don't need a survey to tell us that. student with the student number of We did ask about a few items along those general lines just to see if our readers care about certain things. The SUUSA Senate meetings got a moderately lukewarm you've also won a $250 gift certificate to the Bookscore. response, for instance, but we'd cover them even if nobody Come into our offices today between the hours of 2:30 and wanted to read about them because we'd be wholly remiss 5 p.m. or give m e a call at 586-7751 to take care of in our duties if-we didn ' t a llow readers at least the business LARRY BAKER 522-55-9608 Item Mean Score Almanac . . . . ............. 3.05 Classified .............. : . 3.39 · The SUUSA Back Page Ad . . 3.65 SUUSA Senate Meetings ... . 2.75 Convo speaker recap ....... 3.14 Associated Press State News .. 3.96 AP National News . . .... . .. 3.91 Associated Press Photos .... 4.05 Associated Press World, National &. State Sports .. 3.32 , Roger Ebert Film Reviews ... 3.00 OPINION COLUMNISTS Joseph Sobran ............. 1.90 Molly Ivins ............... 2.59 Dave Barry . . ............. 3.69 Kathleen Parker ... . ....... 2.12 Nat Hentoff .... . . . ....... 2.34 Cokie &. Steven Roberts .... 2.21 Sean Gonsalves .. . . . . ...... 2.11 Maggie Gallagher ..... .... . 2.08 Brandon Schiand .......... 2.53 Laura Albiston ....... . .... 2.44 Glenn Halterman .......... 2.99 SUUSA Commentary ...... 2.28 COMIXWORD Nat'l Crossword Puzzle ..... 2.56 SUU Crossword Puzzle .. ... 2.11 Bound and Gagged ......... 3.43 Mixed Media .... . ........ . 3.57 Luann ................... 3.25 Sherman's Lagoon ......... 3.45 Suburban Cowgirls ......... 2.66 Dave ...... . .. . ....... . .. 2.88 The Swan Factory ......... 2.02 Muffin ................... 2.51 Ick .......... . . . .. . ...... 2.73 Adam .................. . . 2.60 Lack of Focus ............. 2.81 Off the Mark ........... . . . 3.02 Charlie ............... . .. 2.60 Rubes . . .... . ..... ..... ... 3.10 Stickworld . . ......... .. . . 2.60 -c.. |