Polls

WRGW News Poll

Release: September 29^th, 2009

National Issues, Campus Issues, Student Association Approval

September 25-28, 2009

1. Survey Demographics

Gender
Male	44.9%
Female	55.1%

Class
Freshmen	27.2%
Sophomore	27.9%
Junior	25.0%
Senior	15.4%
Graduate	4.4%

School
Columbian	58.1%
Elliot	20.6%
Business	14.0%
Medical	2.9%
Law	0.7%
Other	3.7%

Note: School of Media and Public Affairs counted as Columbian College.

Greek Status
Non-Greek	75.7%
Greek	24.2%

Political Affiliation
Democrat	52.2%
Republican	14.0%
Independent	27.9%
Other	5.2%

2. National Issues

Obama Approval
Excellent	13.4%
Good	62.7%
Fair	18.7%
Poor	5.2%

Original Question: How would you rate the way President Barack Obama is handling his job as President?

Obama Approval
Favorable	76.1%
Unfavorable	23.9%

Favorable Numbers were attained by adding the “excellent” and “good” responses into a “favorable” category and adding the “fair” and “poor” responses into an “unfavorable” category.

Health Care Reform
Favor	42.2%
Oppose	20.0%
Undecided/Don’t Know	37.8%

Original Question: As of right now, do you favor or oppose the healthcare reforms proposed by President Obama and the congressional Democrats?

3. Campus Issues

Michelle Obama Community Service Challenge
Good For Community	83.0%
Politicizing	8.2%
Don’t Know/No Opinion	8.9%

Original Question: As you may have heard, on September 11, 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama challenged GW students to complete 100,000 hours of community service and in return Obama promised to be GW’s commencement speaker this year.  Do you think Michelle Obama’s challenge is good for the community and University, or is she politicizing community service, as suggested by Young Americans Foundation (YAF)?

Getting H1N1 at GW
Very Concerned	8.9%
Moderately Concerned	30.4%
Not Too Concerned	36.3%
Not At All Concerned	24.4%

Original Question: As a GW student, how concerned are you of contracting the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu?

4. Student Association Approval

Votes in SA Election (first round)
Kyle Boyer	22.2%
Julie Bindelglass	15.2%
Nick Polk	12.1%
Someone Else	3.0%
Did Not Vote	47.5%

Note: Non-Freshmen Only

Original Question: To Non-Freshman Students: Who did you vote for in last February’s Student Association presidential election (first round)?

Votes in SA Election (first round, voters only)
Kyle Boyer	42.3%
Julie Bindelglass	28.8%
Nick Polk	23.1%
Someone Else	5.8%

Note: Non-Freshmen Only

Boyer Kicked Off Ballot by JEC
Fairly	17.4%
Unfairly	42.9%
Don’t Know/No Opinion	39.8%

Note: Non-Freshmen Only

Original Question: To Non-Freshman Students: Do you think Kyle Boyer was fairly or unfairly removed from the runoff ballot in last February’s Student Association presidential election for exceeding campaign spending limits?

Vishal Aswani- Retrospective Job Approval Rating
Excellent	2.0%
Good	9.2%
Fair	22.4%
Poor	34.7%
Don’t Know/No Opinion	31.6%

Note: Non-Freshmen Only

Original Question: To Non-Freshman Students: How would you rate the overall job performance of former Student Association President Vishal Aswani during the last academic year?

Vishal Aswani – Retrospective Job Approval Rating
Favorable	16.4%
Unfavorable	83.6%

Favorable Numbers were attained by adding the “excellent” and “good” responses into a “favorable” category and adding the “fair” and “poor” responses into an “unfavorable” category.  “Don’t Know/No Opinion” answers were removed, and the percentages were recalculated.

Student Association Approval (Non-Freshmen Only)
Excellent	2.0%
Good	22.4%
Fair	19.4%
Poor	35.7%
No Opinion	20.4%

Original Question: To Non-Freshman Students: How would you rate the overall job performance of former Student Association President Vishal Aswani during the last academic year?

Student Association Approval (Freshmen Only)
Favorable	78.4%
Unfavorable	8.1%
No Opinion	16.2%

Favorable Numbers were attained by adding the “excellent” and “good” responses into a “favorable” category and adding the “fair” and “poor” responses into an “unfavorable” category.

Student Association Approval (Non-Freshmen)
Favorable	24.5%
Unfavorable	55.1%
No Opinion	20.4%

Favorable Numbers were attained by adding the “excellent” and “good” responses into a “favorable” category and adding the “fair” and “poor” responses into an “unfavorable” category.

*About the Poll: Students were surveyed at various locations in the Marvin Center, as well as Ivory Tower.  Although sample size is important, WRGW News Poll strives to get a representative sample rather than a large sample.  Polling for a truly random sample at a college campus is extremely difficult and nearly impossible to achieve, so randomly surveying students at various campus locations is the method we deem most desirable.  Samples of fewer than 200 respondents will also result in a higher margin of error, but margin of error does not necessarily mean one poll is better than another in predicting how well a poll represents the population, which is the primary goal of the WRGW News Poll.   A poll with an 8% margin of error and only a couple hundred respondents can be far more representative of a population than a poll with thousands of respondents and only a 3% margin of error, and therefore can be a better measure in the end.

WRGW News Poll will be using larger sample sizes in the future to better gauge sub-samples as we get closer to the SA election “season.”

Feel free to email thoughts, and suggestions to dk2011@gwu.edu