 | The Cavalier daily. Tuesday, February 25, 1969 |  |
Students Conduct Poll
To Determine Feeling
Toward Demonstration
By Peter Shea
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer
A survey will be conducted this
evening to determine how much
support actually exists in the
student body at the University for
the recent demonstrations.
The poll will be taken by
COMPOL, a new and still unofficial
organization formed on the spur of
the moment by Jerry Lee Gray and
Thomas H. Steele. Mr. Gray,
business manager for WUVA, and
Mr. Steele, former managing editor
and presently special consultant for
Rapier, stress the fact that they are
in no way associated with the
coalition that has sponsored the
recent demonstrations.
According to Mr. Steele, the
objective of COMPOL is to provide
an accurate, unbiased evaluation of
the strength of the current movement
and to determine exactly
what means the students would use
to gain their goals.
The survey will be taken by
telephone and will sample the
opinions of 350-370 students. The
people actually asking the questions
will have to pledge the results that
they report, in order to insure the
validity of the poll. "The survey
should give an accurate estimate,
within five per cent, of the
students' support for the demonstrations,"
Mr. Steele claimed.
If this attempt is successful,
COMPOL hopes to take a second
poll using the computer in the
registrar's office which will give an
even more exact estimate of student
opinion. Both polls would give
the administration "no excuse for
misunderstanding the student feelings"
on the issues, Mr. Steele
warned. "Possibly the poll can help
us avoid another Columbia," he
continued.
Each person interviewed will be
asked approximately 20 questions.
These will include questions concerning
the demonstrations last week.
Another question will be: "If a
group of students were to occupy a
building in pursuit of the coalition's
demands, how would you react?"
In order to get an exact
evaluation on some of the issues of
the recent demonstrations, less
hypothetical questions will also be
posed. These will include: "Do you
feel the student body of the
University would welcome an increase
in the number of Negro
students at the University?" and
"Would you support a movement
to have Mr. Wheatley dismissed?"
Volunteers are needed to conduct
the phone survey and should
attend the organizational meeting
tomorrow afternoon at 3 in the
lounge of Lefevre House. The
results will be released Wednesday
or as soon as the poll is completed,
if it should take more than one
night to conduct the survey.
| The Cavalier daily. Tuesday, February 25, 1969 | |