April 30, 2003 Student News
What's
the worst way to be surveyed? Student's survey says. . .
From the Hard
News Cafe (4/11/03)
 Dan
Phelps admits that before, if he saw someone with a clipboard
in the mall or on the street, he would have ignored him.
But now he's a little more sympathetic.
When Dr. Emmanuel Nneji announced in the corporate communications
class Phelps was taking for his public relations major that
everyone would have to come up with a survey, get at least 100
people to fill it out and then present their findings to the
class, the St. Louis native had a few ideas.
"But one night it just hit me," he said. "A
survey about surveys! It made sense to me."
The questions came quickly and easily:
- Why do you fill out surveys? (Most said to
be considerate.)
- Are you honest when filling out surveys?
(Only about 60 percent said always.)
- Which approach do you prefer most? (Most
said in person.)
- Which do you prefer least? (Overwhelmingly
phone surveys.)
- Do you feel your opinion counts? (About 11
percent of the "honest" responders felt it did.)
But at first, Phelps felt like he was the only one it made
sense to. Students
and the professors of classes he passed his surveys out to weren't
too excited about the idea.
"There was this one teacher who thought the whole concept
sucked," Phelps
said, "and he told me so."
He would've abandoned the idea if it weren't for his professor's
encouragement.
"Dr. Nneji thought it was great," Phelps said.
So while most of the students prepared their findings about
media influence,
the war in Iraq and online dating in power point form (because
"our professor really likes that," Phelps said), Phelps
decided to keep with the less-beaten path. Instead, he made
a video documenting his two or three weeklong surveying adventure,
which he presented to the class April 18.
Opening with a scene of Phelps in front of a class with surveys
in hand being
pelted by paper wads, the first half tells the unsung story
of the downtrodden surveyist, complete with doors slamming,
people hurriedly circling answers without reading the questions
and (literally) some good old-fashioned butt-kicking.
It closed with the results and lessons learned.
"I think if the people who took surveys could see what
became of it, more
people would take them, and they'd be more honest about it,"
he said.
Phelps hasn't received his grade yet, but the doubted project
was, indeed, an undoubtable success.
"People in the class are still coming up to me and telling
me how much they
liked it," he said, beaming. "I think it left a lasting
impression. And I think that's cool."
By Jasmine Michaelson
utah
state today/archives/April
2003/archives
prior to Sept 2002/
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