Annabelle de St. MauriceTwo weeks ago, Shugoll Research, a Washington, D.C.-based independent research group, conducted a survey of Washington University students regarding their school spirit and attendance of university events. The group did the research as a free service to the university after receiving consent from the administration.
Though they may not show it on Saturdays like counterparts at Big 12 schools, WU students still display pride in the university in other ways and attend a range of cultural events.
While there is nothing wrong with holding focus groups at no cost to the university, the group will most likely shed little light on a belabored subject.
When Shugoll returns with its findings, the research group will suggest reasons for a lack of attendance at sporting events and other campus activities. “There is no incentive to attend,” they will say, or “students consider themselves too busy.” They will be correct but not insightful.
“I do not believe the focus groups can give solutions,” Dean James McLeod wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “They can help you understand [problems such as low spirit].”
Despite the benefits of hosting a research group that does its work for free (and even pays students in the focus groups), WU could have enlisted many departments across the campus to compile the data more comprehensively. Dr. Henry L. Roediger, chair of the psychology department, suggests integrating a survey of students into social psychology curriculum.
“One idea would be to make school spirit at WU a theme for research in a social psychology course and let students discuss and study ways to affect student identification, morale, and affiliation with the university,” said Roediger.
An interdisciplinary study involving WU’s psychology, business, economics, and anthropology departments, for example, would be a worthwhile academic pursuit and, in turn, would be more useful to the university.
Additionally, the survey method itself was somewhat flawed. It would be difficult to get a representative sample by conducting the surveys on Wednesday afternoon and evening (4 p.m. to 10 p.m.). The students who most likely signed up were those not involved in student groups, as Wednesday night is a popular meeting night. By making it difficult to include the “involved” students in the focus group, Shugoll Research will come up with less-than-accurate results.
Nevertheless, using money as an incentive for participation was wise because nearly every college student could use extra money. The benefits of the group doing something for nothing (or for pay from the students’ perspective) aside, Shugoll may be looking for a problem that in fact is not severe as the administration might think it is.
The perceived attendance problem at certain campus events has existed for years, and students, as well as administrators, have tried to solve it in the past. For example, cheerleaders advertise evening basketball games by stating that students can watch the game and still have time to go out that night; the Gateway Blood Association markets its blood drives in the Gargoyle and Friedman Lounge by giving out free t-shirts to donors.
WU’s perceived attendance problem is just that-a perceived attendance problem. Annual sold-out performances of Diwali, attendance for Founders Day lectures, participation in intramural and club sports, and involvement with St. Louis-area after-school programs display the involvement and commitment that got students into WU in the first place. More recently, students bought 1,750 tickets from the Social Programming Board and Student Union for Ben Folds’ concert at the Pageant on Nov. 10.
Instead of celebrating the high attendance at cultural events, WU is disparaging the low attendance of sporting events by even agreeing to the research group setting foot on campus.
Students attend events that their friends attend. If their friends do not watch the UAA championship football game or sit through the lecture given by a Nobel prize-winning economist, they will not either. WU is not only a marketplace of ideas but also of events, and students choose what to attend based on personal preferences and time constraints while taking their friends’ advice into account.
To some degree, the low turnout at many campus events may be due to the fact that the members of this university have concerns and aims that differ from those of other schools. So many people apply for honoraries (99 members of the Class of 2004, for example, applied for 15 Lock and Chain spots) because WU students like to be involved in groups that focus more on academic achievement and community service.
Though one cannot fault the university for allowing Shugoll to assemble research groups to gather data on school spirit, the focus should shift from addressing poor attendance to praising the support students already give one another.