First-Year Students Find Transition to Hamilton Easy

By Kye Lippold '10 and Bret Turner '13

A survey of first-year students conducted last week by HamPoll observed that first-years generally found the transition to college life easy. However, alcohol and Greek life occupied a much greater role in the campus social scene than incoming freshmen expected, and first-years generally found Hamilton more diverse than their own community.

The social scene at Hamilton proved to dominated by alcohol and Greek organizations more than first-years expected before they arrived. While 37% of first-years initially expected alcohol to play a major role in campus social life, 64% thought it played a major role after they arrived at Hamilton. The same held for fraternities and sororities, with 36% of students expecting them to play a moderate or major role on campus before arrival, and 66% concluding they actually played such a role. Marijuana, other illegal drugs, and casual sex were all about 10% more prevalent than students expected.

When asked about their experience adjusting to college life overall, 82% of first-year students found the experience easier or about the same as they expected. However, among the minority that reported a harder transition than their expectations, 21% of women found the transition harder compared to 10% of men.

This difference by gender was mirrored when first-years reported their ease of making friends. While 83% of students found making friends as easy as they expected, women were more likely to report finding social connections hard (20%) relative to men (10%). Students from further abroad were also more likely to have a difficult time making friends, with 26% of students from outside the Northeast reporting this, versus 13% of students from New York, New England, and the Mid-Atlantic. Students living in different dorms on campus reported generally the same level of ease in making friends relative to their expectations.

Respondents from the first-year class reported strong study habits, with 34% spending more than four hours on coursework per day. This workload somewhat exceeded their expectations, with only 25% expecting to work four or more hours per day prior to their arrival on campus.

When asked about the diversity of Hamilton relative to their home community, 48% said Hamilton was more diverse than their home, while 26% said Hamilton was less diverse. However, this question showed a sharp distinction by racial background while controlling for other demographics; students who identified as only white were 53% likely to say Hamilton was more diverse than their home community, versus 25% of students from other or multiple ethnic groups.

This distinction also applied to respondents' views of their groups of friends; students of color and varsity athletes were more likely to view their friends at Hamilton as less diverse than their groups of friends at home (with 46% and 33% taking this view, respectively, compared to 23% of the entire sample).

Notably, first-years in this survey viewed Hamilton as more diverse than did first-years in 2007. Thirty-six percent of respondents from the Class of 2011 viewed Hamilton as less diverse than their home communities in a HamPoll survey at that time, compared to 26% of the Class of 2013. This suggests a greater perception of diversity among the most recent first-year class.

The survey, specifically targeted to the Class of 2013, received 126 responses, or about a 26% response rate. The survey sample was self-selected, so results may differ from the overall population.

Some other findings:

Scholarly pursuits such as intellectual debate and studying with others were pursued at rates similar to what students expected. Fourteen percent of students thought intellectual debate played a major role in social life, and 36% held this view for studying with others.

First-years generally expressed positive opinions of their roommates, with 76% viewing their roommates in a positive fashion, and only 6% having a negative impression.

While students generally found interacting with professors and getting involved in extracurriculars easier than they expected, 55% found it harder to travel off campus than they anticipated.

41% of students found that the dining experience exceeded their expectations, with only 9% thinking it was worse.

Attending Adirondack Adventure, a first-year pre-orientation program, was not associated with a significant increase in the perceived ease of making friends relative to expectations.

Regarding that venerable campus institution, the Varsity Streaking Team, only 10% of students in the sample had not heard of the team before they came to campus. Three respondents out of 126 had never heard of the team at all.


Tabulations for Graphs

Activity	Percent Expecting a “Major Role” in Social Life	Percent Currently Viewing as a “Major Role” in Social Life
Alcohol	37	64
Marijuana	6	11
Other illegal drugs	0	2
Casual sex	9	14
Fraternities and sororities	6	18
Intellectual debate	17	14
Studying with others	31	35
Extracurricular activities	55	58
Religious activities	2	2
Athletic events	21	26

Activity	Percent Expecting Minor or No Role in Social Life	Percent Currently Viewing as Minor or No Role in Social Life
Alcohol	13	11
Marijuana	63	49
Other illegal drugs	87	76
Casual sex	54	45
Fraternities and sororities	63	33
Intellectual debate	32	37
Studying with others	14	17
Extracurricular activities	4	10
Religious activities	78	70
Athletic events	24	25

Hamilton Students Not Offended by Party Invitations: But Strong Support for Statement of Community Values, Offense at Car Incident

By Kye Lippold '10, David Foster '10, and Bret Turner '13

A survey conducted last week by HamPoll: Hamilton's Polling Organization, a student group that queries the student body about important topics, found that most students were not offended by the recent contentious party invitations on campus. However, students expressed considerable concern about the latest incident of campus vandalism, strongly supported a Statement of Community Values being distributed to first-years, and expressed plurality support for a Cultural Education Center.

The survey was open to the entire student body and received 584 responses. The survey sample was self-selected and thus differs slightly from the overall population; specifically, the sample includes a greater proportion of women than the student body at large and contains slightly lower percentages of multicultural students and varsity athletes. Also, 24% of students who responded reported attending a campus discussion or protest related to the incidents, which likely reflects a higher response rate among students who felt passionately about the invitations. Results are expressed in terms of percentages of respondents, and may not add to 100% due to the exclusion of “don't know” responses.

Overall, survey respondents were not offended by either the recent “Golf Pros and Tennis Hos” party invitation or last semester's contentious “Mexican Night” party invitation, which aroused protests from students and discussion by faculty. For both invitations, 18% of respondents indicated they were offended. However, while 69% of respondents indicated they were not offended by the “Golf Pros” invitation (the remaining responses consisted of “not sure” responses or responses from individuals who had not heard of the invitations), fewer (55%) of students were not offended by the “Mexican Night” invitation. The difference can be primarily explained by the fact that 17% of students had not heard of the “Mexican Night” invitation (of which 80% were first-year students); excluding first-year students, 66% were not offended. Thus, neither party invitation aroused substantial offense.

In line with these results, respondents generally viewed the student body's reaction to the invitations as an over-reaction, with 59% taking this view for “Golf Pros” and 57% for “Mexican Night.” Views of the administration's response were split between over-reaction (36% and 40%, for “Golf Pros” and “Mexican Night” respectively) and “about right” (28% and 42%). Faculty responses were only queried in the case of “Mexican Night,” as that event involved discussion at a faculty meeting; 40% of respondents thought the faculty over-reacted, while 27% though the response was about right. Fewer than 10% of respondents viewed any of the groups' reactions to either party as an under-reaction, respectively.

Breaking down results by various demographic groups revealed some important differences in reactions to the party invitations. Sixteen percent of students who identified only as Caucasian were offended by “Mexican Night,” but 26% of students from other or multiple ethnic groups were offended; the results were similar for “Golf Pros.” A smaller but significant division was observed for men and women, with women 8% more likely (21%) to view the invitations as offensive relative to men (13%). Women were also more likely to be unsure about their level of offense, as 65% of men viewed the invitation as not offensive, versus only 48% of women. Students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual were significantly more likely to be offended by the “Golf Pros” invitation, expressing offense at rates of 38% versus 17% of heterosexual students.

In addition to these divides among identity groups, several campus demographics reported different responses to the invitations. Students on financial aid were more likely to be offended by both invitations (25% each) than students not on financial aid (about 10% each); this result held after controlling for race, sex, and other variables in a linear regression. Varsity athletes were less likely to report offense at both invitations, with a mere 9% reporting offense relative to 22% of non-athletes. These results were almost identical to those for members of Greek organizations, who reported offense at rates comparable to athletes.

Responses to the incident in which a car was vandalized with a homophobic slur were much more uniformly disapproving. 75% of students were offended by the incident, while only 15% were not offended. Differences among demographic groups were more muted on this question, with no clear racial differences and strong majorities offended overall. However, lesbian, gay, and bisexual students were almost universally offended by the slur (91%), 10% more women were offended than men, and 10% more varsity athletes reported being not offended than non-athletes. Students thought that reaction to the vandalism was about right on the part of both the student body (50%) and the administration (59%); 33% and 24% viewed the response as an under-reaction, respectively.

Finally, the survey provided a measure of student support for a variety of proposals related to diversity and community values. Over 60% of students were opposed to the prospects of both a Diversity Intensive requirement (described as a “course requirement which would function similarly to the Writing Intensive requirement but would be applied to courses in which students studied issues related to other cultures or diversity”) and requiring party invitations to be approved by an administrator. Conversely, 67% of students supported a plan to “distribute a Statement of Community Values to incoming freshmen which would articulate shared values for behavior at Hamilton.” Support for a Social Honor Code (described as “a binding statement which would require students to confront one another by initiating respectful dialogue about offensive acts, or face judicial consequences”) and a “Cultural Education Center whose goal would be to encourage discussion about diversity” were both closely split; 40% of respondents supported the Social Honor Code, with 45% opposed; and 42% supported a Cultural Education Center, with 30% opposed and 26% having no opinion.


Respondents also supported the prospect of increasing the number of cameras in parking lots, with 21% supporting more cameras to prevent future hate crimes, 33% supporting them for another reason, 21% opposed to new cameras, and 21% holding no opinion.

Overall, Hamilton students who responded to the survey indicated a sense that the response to party invitations was overblown. However, an overwhelming majority of students were offended by the incident of vandalism, and support is strong for some form of action in the form of a Statement of Community Values. Respondents demonstrated differences based on their race, sex, sexual orientation, financial aid status, athletics participation, and Greek organization membership; these divergences in opinion provide an insightful look at the factors that influence attitudes at Hamilton.

HamPoll welcomes student feedback at hampoll@hamilton.edu. The organization meets Wednesdays at 8pm in KJ 103.

New Blog

Welcome, all, to the new blog for HamPoll, a student group at Hamilton College that conducts surveys of the student body about important issues on campus. Stay tuned for more updates on future surveys!

Hamilton Students Let Academic Resources Go To Waste

By Yoshihiko Kubota, Xiyue Li, and Kye Lippold

Hamilton students have similar study habits regardless of class year, gender, majors, and across both sides of campus, according to 472 students who responded to an anonymous online survey conducted by Hampoll last week. The breakdown of the respondents by class was 27% seniors, 22% juniors, 25% sophomores, and 25% freshmen, while 41% were male and 59% were female.

Around 33% of respondents identified themselves as having lived mostly on the darkside since freshmen year, while another 46% said they have lived mostly on the lightside. The vast majority of students, 80.1%, study between one hour and five hours a day (35.8% between one and three hours and 45.5% between three and five hours) with a slight skew towards longer study hours. Most students (70%) study from 6 pm to midnight; Freshmen are the most likely (22%) to study during the afternoon (12-6pm), while Juniors stay up the latest, with 78% staying up to midnight and 9% studying after midnight.

While study hours did not differ significantly between darksiders and lightsiders, study locations showed a distinct difference by campus side (see chart below). While 52.7% of lighsiders preferred to study either in the Science Center or the library, only 14.8% of darksiders chose those places to study. On the contrary, 32.3% of the darksiders opted to study in KJ while 50.3% preferred to work in their dorms. Thus, students prefer study locations close to where they live. Other spots to study mentioned by students included the common room of dorms, Café Opus and the third floor of the Chapel.

Friday nights, often considered a synonym for partying, are apparently not as wild for high-performing students. About 69% of students never study on Fridays, but students who receive A's in their classes were 10% more likely than B students to give up their Friday nights. Studying on Friday nights was an area that darksiders and lightsiders disagreed on, as 34.8% and 27.8% respectively study on those nights. Despite partying, most Hamilton students devoted more time to their academic pursuits; the majority student responses for time spent on different activities indicate 1-3 hours spent on extracurricular activities daily, 1-3 hours on leisure, 6-8 hours asleep, and 3-5 hours studying.

Other notable facts about study habits at Hamilton are that 63% listen to music while studying, that a little over 10% of students prefer to study in groups, and that 68% of the student population have not missed any classes this semester without appropriate reasons. Similarly, about two thirds of students did not report doing work for one class while attending class for a different subject. Most Hamilton students start working on major assignments in the week before the deadline (see chart below), and A students were 21% likely to start assignments more than a week before deadline, compared to 13% of B students.

When asked about their use of academic resources, students gave mixed results. The student body is evenly split between those who attend lectures and those who do not, as 47% identified themselves as attending lectures sometimes (8.3% often), while 47% attended rarely or never. Seniors were more likely to attend such events than underclassmen. Students also used the Q-Lit Center, the Writing Center, the Oral Communications Center, and the Language Lab sparsely, as not a single one of these resources was used often by more than 8% of the student body. Regarding other academic resources, the internet was the number one resource for studying; 83.3% used it often, followed by 69.5% using the library (including digital resources), and 61.2% frequently attended professors' office hours.

Hamilton Students Voice Opinions, Appreciate EMTs

By Michael Gregg, Yoshihiko Kubota, and Xiyue Li

278 students took a HamPoll survey evaluating campus facilities between the dates of April 9th and April 12th, 2008. 59% were female, 41% male, and the sample comprised 62 freshmen, 84 sophomores, 54 juniors and 78 seniors. As a student at Hamilton one gradually gets a feel for how students perceive the campus facilities, and many of the survey’s response trends confirm these word-of-mouth perceptions. Even so, the statistics might surprise you.

Almost one quarter of students expressed dissatisfaction with the medical care and advice at the Health Center, and more than 3 out of every 5 students felt the Health Center needs to stay open longer hours. Campus Safety found overwhelming support; 90% of students expressed satisfaction with their response time to emergencies. Students also love their EMTs, with two thirds of respondents voicing satisfaction and the other third having no experience with the EMT service.

The mail center has mostly pleased students, though one third of respondents preferred the old, card-based package notification system. A full quarter of Light Side students expressed dissatisfaction with the timeliness of snow plowing in the winter. While this in itself is unfortunate, it pales in comparison to the three quarters of Dark Siders similarly dissatisfied. Perhaps the strategy employed in plowing the Dark Side needs to be rethought.

On the bright side, over 90% of respondents reported that their dorms were pleasantly clean. In fact, the question concerning satisfaction with the cleaning job in one’s dorm showed the heaviest skew towards the “very satisfied” answer; make sure you take a moment to thank your janitors for the good work they do.

Of those who have used the Writing Center, around 4 of every 5 students feel their writing has improved from its services. Though only around a half of students have taken advantage of the Career Center’s resources (resume/cover letter help, career choice guidance), most of those who have value their time there. Most students have never been to the Oral Communication Lab or Quantitative Literacy Center, and the rest visit these facilities only rarely. Of the few who have gone, slightly more expressed dissatisfaction than satisfaction.

Despite all of the complaining your friends may do, students tended to express satisfaction with Bon Appétit’s service. 50% were satisfied, 18% dissatisfied, and the rest neutral.

Publication	Satisfaction	Dissatisfaction
The Continental	15%	61%
The Daily Bull	21%	59%
The Duel Observer	52%	18%
HamPoll	45%	15%
The Spectator	39%	27%

Finally, when asked to express satisfaction with campus publications and media, students confirmed previous trends by preferring The Duel Observer, HamPoll and The Spectator to The Continental and The Daily Bull. For each publication, the remaining percentage expressed neutrality.

Here are some responses to the prompt for comments:

• The EMTs are a great group of individuals who do a great deal for this campus.
• My thesis sucks.
• Thank you Dale the Custodian!!!
• The EMTs should get paid or some other form of compensation. Its [sic] ridiculous that they get little to no recognition for all that they do.
• Please plow Bundy next winter, thanks.

Hamilton Students Support Obama

By Tamim Akiki, Yoshihiko Kubota, and Xiyue Li

Barack Obama garnered 55.6% support as the most likely candidate to win the presidential election from the 409 Hamilton students who participated in an online survey conducted prior to Super Tuesday. This percentage far exceeds those of John McCain and Hilary Clinton, who received 22.3% and 21.8% support respectively. 

The population who took the survey identified themselves as 55% Democratic, 13.2% Republican, and 23.7% Independent. Caucasians made up 87.8%, Black/African Americans 2.0%, Latino/Latina/Hispanic 2.0%, Asians 3.9%, Native Americans 0.5%, and 3.9% other. Males consisted of 46.9% and females 53.1%. Interest in the primaries was high, as 93% of respondents felt at least somewhat acquainted with the issues, including 40% who considered themselves to be well acquainted.

The qualities most important in the decision to vote in the primaries were the candidates’ position on important issues (93% considered it very important), the candidates’ personal integrity (73%) and the candidates’ experience (33.7%). The candidates’ political party was not considered to be of major importance, and support for Obama was prevalent throughout the student population: 59.5% of self-identified Democrats, 46.3% Independents, and even 40% of Republicans supported him over the other candidates. The support from self-identified Republicans was most surprising as Obama came within 5 votes of beating the Republican candidate, John McCain. Also, while the focus of the Democratic primaries has been at times shifted to one of Female candidate vs African American candidate, there was no significant correlation between support for Obama or Clinton with race or gender. The great majority of respondents felt that the United States is ready for either a female or a black president. Further, 90% of respondents felt that Obama will perform as President better than the current President. This percentage compares with 81% for Hilary Clinton, 81% for John McCain, 28% for Mike Huckabee, and 24% for Mike Gravel.

As for issues concerning the primaries, only 10% of respondents believe the Bush tax cuts should be permanent for all, while 75% believe there should either be a path for illegal immigrants to citizenship or a guest worker program, and 60.1% support federally mandated universal healthcare coverage. There was no correlation between the respondents’ opinion on these issues with the candidate they support. However, there was a slight difference in the issues of most importance amongst respondents supporting each candidate. The top three issues Obama supporters care about were the Iraq war, environment, and the economy; McCain supporters the Iraq war, economy, and taxes; Clinton supporters the Iraq war, economy, and health care; and Huckabee supporters the Iraq war, health care, and abortion.

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.