One Third of Hamilton Students Dissatisfied with Treatment of Diversity on the Hill

By Michael Gregg and HamPoll Staff

 

In October 448 students took a HamPoll survey concerning racial and ethnic issues on the Hamilton campus. Participants were asked to identify their genders, class years, nationalities and racial or ethnic identities at the start of the survey, and the members of HamPoll correlated the answers to a set of questions on diversity with these characteristics. 

32% of the student body answered that issues of racial and ethnic diversity were insufficiently addressed in the classroom. Broken down, 60% of non-whites expressed dissatisfaction compared to 24% of whites. Among several possible strategies suggested to remedy this, non-whites in particular believed inviting speakers to talk about diversity and inflicting more severe punishment on transgressions would be most effective. Students in general also called for better peer education.

One question involved rating the importance of several characteristics in defining one’s personality, and the differences here were noticeable. 46% of non-whites said that their race was very important to them, compared to only 8% of whites. Other elements such as ethnicity, intelligence/education, family/friends, gender and religion did not vary appreciably, and sexual orientation did not vary at all.

97% of non-whites said issues of racial/ethnic diversity are important to their education at Hamilton, versus only 75% of whites. Similar differences occurred between males and females, with 85% of females finding importance in these issues and only 66% of males. Still, the overwhelming majority of the campus seems to believe these issues important to their education.

Non-whites were strongly more in favor of Hamilton adopting a requirement for each student to complete a course increasing awareness of diversity on the Hill. Among non-whites, 22% reported their opinions being ignored in class due to their ethnic or racial origin (compared to 4% of whites), and 37% reported the same offense occurred outside of class (compared to 12% of whites).

4% of students have seriously considered leaving Hamilton because their race or ethnicity was not respected. 4% of students likewise reported that they’d considered dropping a class for similar reasons. The vast majority of students have not had such doubts. 

Ever the romantics, 57% of Hamilton students have either dated or seriously considered dating students of other races or ethnicities, though non-whites were significantly more open on this front. 44% of students said that Hamilton overall is more diverse than their home communities.

Views on Hamilton’s Media Outlets

By Tamim Akiki and HamPoll Staff

The survey was conducted between January 30^th and February 4^th by Hamilton’s Polling Organization. Two hundred and ten students participated in the survey, and their views on Hamilton’s media outlets are summarized in this issue. HamPoll would like to thank the student body for continuing to support our surveys and to emphasize that our role is simply to document the views and opinions of students. For this survey, we believe that all Hamilton media outlets have hard-working teams behind them and we hope that this information will be useful to them in understanding what the student body is estimated to like and dislike.

 

1. The Right:

With over 69% of respondents expressing dissatisfaction with The Right, this publication ranks fourth among Hamilton’s media outlets. In addition, despite the low 5% Democratic satisfaction with The Right, the Republican equivalent remains low in absolute terms (38%) indicating a general lack of enthusiasm about this newsletter. Lastly, The Right needs to advertise itself on a larger scale as more than 50% of all respondents did not have an opinion about it, a rate second only to that of WHCL (51%). If we isolate those who did not have an opinion, then The Right ranks first is dissatisfaction with 72%. Unfortunately, it also ranks last (16%) in terms of usefulness to the Hamilton Community with support from 43% of Republican student respondents and only 7% of Democrats.

2. The Daily Bull:

The Daily Bull is a very polarizing newsletter. In details, it was able to garner the satisfaction of 45% of the 210 DIFFERENT Hamilton students. This left 53% of the responses expressing dissatisfaction with Hamilton’s yellow daily. As expected, since The Daily Bull is published so frequently, the percentage of students who did not hold an opinion about it was only 2%. In addition, this publication is most enjoyed by freshman with 80% satisfaction compared to 36%, 39%, and 33% satisfaction among sophomores, juniors, and seniors respectively.

3. The Spectator:

Almost 52% of respondents said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with The Spectator and 80% of them thought it is a useful source of quality information for the Hamilton Community. The distribution of satisfaction by class years shows 61% of freshmen are satisfied with The Spec compared to 54% of sophomores 40% of juniors and 51% of seniors. With this newspaper, gender appears to be a determining factor in satisfaction, with females expressing satisfaction at a 15% higher rate than male students.

4. The Duel Observer:

More than 22% of respondents did not have an opinion about The Duel Observer. The Observer has the satisfaction of 60% of the student respondents which means it has one of the lowest dissatisfaction rates among media outlets at Hamilton, second only to WHCL. The lowest satisfaction with The Duel came from seniors (49%) which was a drop from the high satisfaction among juniors, sophomores, and freshmen. The Duel Observer phenomenon is also characterized by its ability to cross party and gender lines securing itself an equally-good reputation among a simple majority of students.

5. WHCL:

Hamilton’s radio station is the least controversial media outlet with more than 50% of respondents expressing no opinion about its performance. Still, it has the support of 36% of students while only 13% of the student body expressed dissatisfaction with WHCL. The reason for the indifference of so many students probably stems from the fact that it is the least common media outlet for students. Our survey shows that 70% of Hamilton students never listen to the radio. However, if we isolate students who do not listen to the radio, then satisfaction with WHCL rises considerably to 58%.

6. The Continental:

Hamilton student respondents expressed deep dissatisfaction with this new magazine with 36% reporting they are very dissatisfied with it and another 20% saying they are dissatisfied with The Continental. Altogether, only 33% said they were satisfied with the magazine and 57% said they thought the magazine is not useful in providing quality information to the Hamilton Community. Only 23% of males expressed satisfaction with The Continental compared to 41% of females.

7. The Wag:

Almost half of the respondents were satisfied with The Wag but more than 30% did not express their opinions regarding its performance. Similar to The Duel Observer, satisfaction with The Wag does not vary by gender and political affiliation, but unlike The Duel Observer, there is no evidence of a difference in satisfaction with The Wag by class year.

Additional results:

Students who were dissatisfied with:	Were also most dissatisfied with:
The Continental	The Daily Bull
The Daily Bull	The Continental
The Spectator	The Continental
The Right	The Continental & The Spectator
The Wag	The Right & The Daily Bull
The Duel Observer	The Spectator
WHCL	The Continental & The Right

Quotes from the Survey:

“The students seem to be in a bubble when it comes to knowing what is going on in the world. We have to actively seek out any news. There are no national newspapers available in the dining halls, and the student media does not focus on the outside world.”

“Please stop publishing the daily bull.”

“Duel Observer: This publication is a complete waste of paper.. It’s not funny, its offensive to the college and administrators, and is embarrassing for the Hamilton community.”

“I hate Syracuse news. Some lady gets mugged and they talk about it as if it was the end of the world.”

“PLEASE bring the New York Times back to Commons and McEwen.”

“DAILY BULL AND THESSALONIUS TOKEFACE are the soul’s sustenance.”