The latest edition of The University’s Pack Poll revealed 10 percent of polled students don’t know Roe v. Wade is a Supreme Court case dealing with abortion, and students are skewed liberally toward social issues.
Many polled students identify with the Republican Party, while the majority label themselves pro-choice and support providing a path to legal citizenship. This is a trend that has persisted since the poll’s inception three years ago, according to Michael Cobb, professor of political science and director of the Pack Poll.
Cobb said more students tend to identify with conservative ideology, while most social issues — excluding gun control — have been decidedly liberal during the past three years.
The poll showed 33 percent of polled students identify with the Republican Party, 30 percent identify as independent and 28 percent democratic. Cobb said as a tech-based school in the South, such a divide is not unusual.
Cobb works with a group of five chosen students during each school year to aid his study, including Joanne Wu, junior in political science, who said the political opinion is not surprising of college students.
“I think it is just the young demographic of being a college student. You want to have your social freedom,” Joanne Wu, junior in political science, said.
The poll had a 24 percent response rate, with around 1000 random student responses reflecting the results of the polls. Cobb said the polls are an accurate representation of the student body, with 53 percent of student responders being male, and slightly more upperclassmen responding to the email survey.
“We think we have done a very good job of accurately representing the student body,” Cobb said, “[The response was] pretty dang good, all things considered.”
Wu said the students working with Cobb collaborated to decide a few of the questions, one of which showed how much polled students knew about federal law on abortion.
When asked to name the subject matter of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, 9 percent of students said it dealt with school desegregation, 1 percent responded with the death penalty and 89 percent responded with the correct answer.
Cobb said he thought the number of students who were familiar with Roe v. Wade was high, and that many of his own political science students have trouble listing political information like court cases and officeholders.
“People tend not to know the answers to political information, even if they’re majors in politics. So I was surprised that that many knew,” Cobb said.
Wu said she was surprised at the number of students not familiar with the court decision from 1973 that set precedent for abortion, but it was nice to see most students knew.
The poll also showed the majority of polled students in favor of principals being armed but not in favor of teachers being armed. All of the results can be found on packpoll.com, Cobb said. The poll is specifically made for students to gain insight on their own habits.
“The whole project is designed to help students be better consumers,” Cobb said, “I want students to know what other students think.”
The poll also gives students working as pollsters an opportunity to gain experience. Cobb said the Pack Poll group recently travelled to Washington D.C., where they were introduced to national pollsters.
“As a political science student, you hear this word [polling] thrown around, but to actually be the person surveying is a new experience,” Cobb said. “It’s basically an in-depth look at public opinion.”
