A Pack Poll released Wednesday examined the opinions of 1,102 NC State students regarding the unfolding events in Ferguson, Missouri after a Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown, an unarmed, young black male, on Aug. 9 and sparked widespread protests and police militarization in the area.
The poll was sent out to 3,500 random undergraduate students as well as to an additional 300 black students who weren’t in that first draw, which is called an oversample, in an effort to provide reliable comparative data based on race.
The majority of NC State students reported that they were following the events at least a little closely, with 44 percent reporting that they were following it at fairly closely or more.
While 91 percent of black students said they thought the police response in Ferguson has been too extreme, only about 60 percent of white students, slightly more than half, reported the police have gone too far.
Michael Cobb, associate professor of political science and the advisor of Pack Poll, said the results were on par with data from national surveys and demonstrated a discrepancy between black and white students’ opinions of the events in Ferguson.
“This mirrors a national racial divide and how people are viewing Ferguson,” Cobb said. “NC State is kind of a microcosm of the larger community.”
Cobb said certain correlating results can be viewed as a distinct racial divide in the way Ferguson is being viewed by some students.
The survey found 77 percent of people who thought protestors in Ferguson are exercising their rights also believe the events in Ferguson are raising important issues about race, while only 35 percent of people who think the protests have gone too far think the events are bringing up important issues about race, according to Cobb.
“It seems to be that people’s interpretations of what is going on is being viewed through a racial lens,” Cobb said. “I don’t have any measures of prejudice, but it seems to be that if they are rejecting the race issue, they are not liking the protestors that happen to be black.”
The data also found that while 53.4 percent of white students think police are tougher on blacks than on white, 91.1 percent of black people felt the same way.
The poll demonstrated that relatively high numbers of both blacks and whites said they feel police have treated them unfairly in the past, and how a person felt they were treated by police in the past correlates with how they feel about the events in Ferguson.
“It’s kind of interesting,” Cobb said. “Your own interactions are going to shape how you view things that have nothing to do with you that have to deal with law enforcement.”
Nicholas Hatley, a senior in political science and statistics, said Pack Poll receives very high numbers of responses compared to the numbers that large political polling companies such as Pew or Gallup receive.
Of the 3,800 students who received the survey, 29 percent responded. Cobb said a good response rate for a Pew or Gallup poll would be somewhere around nine or 10 percent.
The Pack Poll team chose to address the events in Ferguson because of how much media attention they have received and the level of student interest the team thought the topic would generate, Hatley said.
“Ferguson can be viewed through a number of different prisms, and so many people are coving it, and it’s almost unavoidable if you are paying any attention to anything,” Cobb said.
Cobb said while many current events fail to capture student interest, the variety of ways people are able interpret Ferguson makes it relatable to a large number of people.
“For some people it’s the case of a race issue and police treatment; for some people it’s about the militarization of police,” Cobb said. “There’s just a lot of ways to view it, so there is something for everyone.”
To view the full Pack Poll results about Ferguson, visit packpoll.com.
