According to a recent Herald poll, President Obama continues to receive large support from Brown students, with 77.5 percent approving of his job performance as president — 18.5 percent strongly approving and 59 percent somewhat approving. Only about 18 percent of students — 13.3 percent somewhat and 4.6 percent strongly — stated disapproval in the poll, whose results showed that Obama is as favored on campus as he was in last November's Herald poll.
In national polls, Obama has not fared as well — the Associated Press's exit polls from Tuesday's elections showed that 45 percent of voters approved of Obama and 54 percent opposed him.
The Democratic Party took a huge hit this week, losing control of the House and facing a larger Republican minority in the Senate. But despite national trends, the president maintains support from students. A Herald poll conducted just before the 2008 presidential election showed undergraduates supporting Obama over then-candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., 86.1 to 6.3 percent.
The Herald poll was conducted Nov. 1–2 and has a 3.0 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 915 students completed the poll, which The Herald distributed as a written questionnaire in the University Mail Room in J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night.
At 74.0 percent, approval for President Ruth Simmons remains high — slightly lower, but statistically the same, as in recent semesters. A total of 5.9 percent of those polled said they disapproved, with an additional 20.1 percent saying they did not know or had no answer. Those who said they approved of Simmons were roughly split between doing so "strongly" and "somewhat."
The Undergraduate Council of Students saw consistent approval rates from past years, with 43.5 percent of students approving of UCS and 10.4 percent not approving. About 46 percent responded that they did not know or had no answer.
Students were largely confident in their or their family's ability to finance their education, with 64.3 percent responding in the affirmative. About one-third of students were worried about their family's ability, including about 10 percent who said they were "strongly worried," statistically unchanged from the past two semesters.
When asked about sexual orientation, 84.4 percent of undergraduates stated they were heterosexual while 6.4 percent identified as homosexual, 5.7 percent as bisexual and 1.7 percent as other. Among men, 11.3 percent identified as homosexual and 4.5 percent as bisexual, while 2.1 percent of women identified as homosexual and 6.8 percent as bisexual.
The Herald poll found that approximately 60 percent of students have stolen from or violated rules on food at eateries run by Brown Dining Services this semester, which has undergone some recent restructuring with the reopening of the Blue Room and the closing of the Gate for lunch.
About 47 percent have taken out food from the Sharpe Refectory or Verney-Woolley Dining Hall after having eaten there. Also, approximately 23 percent of students have removed silverware or other non-food items, while about 15 percent of Brunonians have eaten at the Ratty or V-Dub without swiping in. About 16 percent have taken something from an eatery, not including the Ratty or V-Dub, without paying.
Just under 42 percent of students reported they had used marijuana this semester. Slightly over one-third of consumers, 15.6 percent in total, said they use at least weekly on average.
About 84 percent of students said they had drunk alcohol at least once this semester, including 80.3 percent of students under age 21 and 92.3 percent of those 21 or older. The vast majority of all students, 73.0 percent, have drunk this semester more than once a month on average, but less than daily. 15.3 percent responded that they did not consume alcohol at all this semester.
The Herald poll found that only about 10 percent of students feel unsafe walking around campus at night, while 90 percent stated they felt very or somewhat safe. Of those surveyed, 96.7 percent of men and 84.3 percent of women said they felt safe on campus at night.
The poll found that 40.5 percent of students said they had interacted with their professors outside of class at least once a week on average this semester. In addition, 28.4 percent said they met with their professors less than once a week, but more than once a month, and another 21.2 percent had met with a professor at least once this semester, but less than once a month.
An overwhelming 69.6 percent of students are or were satisfied with their assigned freshman roommate, with 47.9 percent stating they were very satisfied. In contrast, 25.9 percent of students were dissatisfied with their roommate — 14.3 percent were somewhat dissatisfied and 11.6 were very dissatisfied.
Methodology
Written questionnaires were administered to 915 undergraduates Nov. 1–2 in the lobby of J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert '62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night. To ensure random sampling, pollsters approached every third person and asked each one to complete a poll. The poll has a 3.0 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The margin of error was similar for results above citing subsets of gender or age.
The sample polled was demographically similar to the Brown undergraduate population as a whole. The sample was 46.3 percent male, 53.2 percent female and 0.4 percent other. First-years made up 25.0 percent of the sample, 24.5 percent were sophomores, 25.5 percent were juniors and 25.0 percent were seniors. Of those polled, 64.5 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 19.7 percent as Asian, 9.3 percent as Hispanic, 9.2 percent as black, 1.4 percent as American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.7 percent as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Also, 3.9 percent identified with a racial group or ethnicity not listed and 1.6 percent chose not to answer. The sum of the percentages is greater than 100 percent due to respondents who identified with multiple ethnic or racial groups.
News Editor Sydney Ember '12, Arts & Culture Editor Suzannah Weiss '13 and Senior Staff Writers Alex Bell '13 and Kristina Fazzalaro '12 coordinated the poll. Herald section editors, senior staff writers and other staff members conducted the poll.
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