Burnt Orange Report from the Floor
By Karl-Thomas Musselman
Back in the Student Government room I am today with another report while Byron entertains you tonight with LiveBlogging.
Some initial announcements, someone spoke on surveys that SG is currently doing. Some interesting preliminary results about some of the questions, political make up of respondent pool (about 1000, MOE ~3%)
42% Democrat
35% Republican
13% Independent
5% Libertarian
4% Green
I think that isn't out of the ordinary with our actual voting results on campus because many campus Republicans do not vote here (many do voting by mail) The Green vote will be in the Kerry column in Texas this election (no Nader), I would be willing to bet that much of the independent vote is democratic this year and the libertarians on campus are the 'intellectual' type and not the right wing type that exists in much of rural Texas.
Also, number one complaint with Student Government? With about 28% (I think) the top claim is "No Authority".
I find it interesting though that polling like this was done during last year's SG election (though I'm not sure in what capacity) but with the fact that the data will be given to the SG Exec, will we ever see the results? Will it just end up being used to craft next spring's winning message for the SG ticket?
President Brent Cheney reported that he and VP Rachel McGinity met with Carol Keeton Rylander McClellen Strayhorn and asked about some student concerns. In asking, "If you were Governor what would you think about these ideas...." tax-free textbooks and student on board of regents both sounded like a really good idea to her and her office is apparently crunching the number on tax free textbooks right now. Can someone say campaign issue for the 2006 Governor's race?
We are now in the middle of appropriations where $46,336.84 was requested by student groups this week, and $7,370 will actually be given out by SG. This is spread out over 3 weeks and in total about $80,000 will have been requested and maybe $11,000 will be given out.
Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at October 5, 2004 07:39 PM
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Good Wednesday! I am pleased to see that BOR comments from the SG meeting each week, and I wanted to clarify some of the points made about the survey, as I was the person there to present the issue.
First, the main topic of the presentation was to let current reps know about the possibility of addressing or researching relevant issues or projects by use of these opinion surveys.
Second, I have some more detailed info on student's rating of Student Government. 23% of the undergraduate population rated some dissatisfaction with SG. A question then asked (if they were dissatisfied), what was the reason. Of those that responded, No Authority received 26% and No Outreach received 22%. It is important to note that this does not mean that 26% of undergrads believe that SG has no authority.
Lastly, the results will be provided to Exec to then be released to The Daily Texan, the SG assembly, and the public at large. There is no intention of hiding the results to use in future campaigns.
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me. I am honored though that the data has made an apprarence here.
