2001 Surveys:

High School seniors are more liberal than adults on gay issues

In collaboration with polling firm Zogby International, Professor of Sociology, Dennis Gilbert (center in photo below) and his students conducted a national survey in March 2001 on high school seniors regarding their attitudes on gay issues. The study was co-released by MTV.

Study results showed that 86 percent of the 1,003 seniors polled thought that gay men and lesbians should be accepted by society. Two-thirds said that gay marriages should be legal. The largest exception to these views was among born-again Christians.

Survey results were reported in the New York Times, USA Today, the Detroit News and by Reuters News Service.

Young New Yorkers are less cynical than their peers nation wide

Sara Weinstein ‘02, discusses the Hamilton College poll on the political views of New York youth with Scott Sweet, a reporter for “The Chronicle of Higher Education.”

“Cynical” is a word often used to describe the political attitudes of young Americans. But when asked if they thought politicians were corrupt or dishonest, New Yorkers ages 18-24, were much more optimistic than their peers nationwide, according to a recent survey sponsored by the Levitt Public Affairs Center.  The study was conducted by Hamilton College students in a government class led by Philip Klinkner with the aid of survey experts, Zogby International. This New York survey was a follow-up to a national poll and examined young New Yorker’s attitudes about politics and the senate race. 

When asked if they thought most politicians were corrupt or dishonest, 61.2 percent of young Americans either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed.  In contrast, only 48.4 percent of young New Yorkers felt the same way.

Known as “NY2K - Political Attitudes of Young Americans,” this poll was developed by these studentswho also designed a website to inform their peers about the 2000 New York U.S. Senate race between Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio.  The poll was administered by the independent polling firm of Zogby International. 

A sizable gender gap was shown in the Lazio/Clinton race.   Among young men, Lazio was leading 55 to 34 percent.  Among young women, however, Clinton held a lead of 52 to 37 percent.  This amounts to a gender gap of 36 percentage points. 

“I am not surprised that the young women of my generation are coming out to support Mrs. Clinton,” commented Sara Weinstein, member of the class and a junior from New York City.  “We see her as a strong woman who has been able to withstand gender bias.”

Zogby International contacted 406 randomly selected New Yorkers between the ages of 18 and 24 from October 13-18.  The Hamilton College students of NY2K composed the survey instrument.  The margin of error for the full sample was plus or minus 6 percent.  

Other major findings

•  Young New Yorkers are substantially more liberal on certain social issues than their peers in other states.  For example, 34.5 percent of young Americans said that a candidate’s religion was at least somewhat important to them in deciding how to vote.  In contrast, only 20.7 percent of young New Yorkers said that a candidate’s religion was important to them. 

•  Nationally, 43.1 percent said that a candidate’s sexual orientation was important to them, but only 25.6 percent of young New Yorkers said that it was.

•  Al Gore showed a landslide win among young New Yorkers, with a lead of 46.6 percent over 21.4 percent for George W. Bush

•  Ralph Nader was predicted to do extremely well among young New Yorkers with 20.7 percent of the vote.  This is nearly twice the support given by young voters nationally, and as much as four or five times the overall support for Nader in other national polls. 

Students announce results of youth poll on guns

Two students present findings at National Press Club

 
Scott C. Taylor ‘01 (on left), Luciana Maxim ‘02  (second from left) and Professor Dennis Gilbert (far right) meet with  Nan Aaron (second from right) of the Alliance for Justice after presenting their findings of a poll on youth attitudes toward guns at the National Press Club.

 After many decades of heated debate, the issue of guns and gun control regulations not only remains a controversial topic, but has also acquired new dimensions due to technological advances, increased availability of guns, and different social transformations.  More recently, dramatic high school shootings have triggered renewed interest in the issue, and the nation has become increasingly concerned about the younger generation and about high school students in particular.

Not surprisingly, when Professor Gilbert suggested conducting a survey that would evaluate high school students’ attitudes toward gun-related issues to his Survey Research class in Spring 2000, we all found that to be a perfect topic.  

In the months to come, as part of a collaborative classroom project, we designed, conducted, and evaluated a pilot survey that later became the foundation of a widely publicized national survey, administered by Zogby International in Utica, and funded by Hamilton’s Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center.

We were mainly interested in high school students’ experience with guns, in their opinions on gun control policies, in their potential for activism regarding gun issues, and in their demographic profile - to see how their different backgrounds might influence their views and perspectives.  What we found from our conversations with students from all around the country was a combination of typical and striking responses.  

First of all, a vast majority of students reported having thought about gun issues prior to the interview, which showed general concern.  Whether they had discussed these issues with their parents, friends, or teachers, had learned about them in school or from the media, had heard about high school shootings, or had been affected by guns personally, the students were overall very familiar with gun-related matters.

In designing our questionnaire, we focused mainly on three major topics that we deemed important and useful to know: the level of support for gun control laws and gun safety measures, and the potential for activism regarding gun issues.  

The responses that we obtained in our survey were indeed very interesting when compared to adult surveys on the same issues.  Amazingly enough, the students were not only aware of gun control issues, but were overall more pro-gun control than the adults themselves.

Other interesting results:

•  Even the students who vehemently opposed gun control in general, supported most of the specific gun-control regulations that we asked about.

•  Approximately 1/6th of all the students interviewed were very willing to actively show their interest in gun politics through petitions, meetings, marches, and group discussions.

•  Almost half the students said it would be easy for them to obtain a handgun in their neighborhood and 1/3 reported knowing someone at their school who had been threatened with a gun or shot at.

Many surveys in the past had thoroughly evaluated adults’ attitudes toward gun related issues.  What made this course and this survey all the more interesting was the fact that this time we were targeting the high school students themselves and we were interested in voicing their own opinions on the issue.  

While our questionnaire was designed with the issue of guns in mind, it included many other parameters according to which the student population could be evaluated - parameters that enriched our findings and might contribute in the future to surveys on other topics as well.

-Luciana Maxim ‘02

Economics students survey local firms  

With students in Economics 560, Prof. Derek Jones is surveying the population of medium-sized
(employing 100-500 workers) establishments in the four-county area of Onondaga, Madison, Herkimer and Madison (about 600 establishments) as well as randomly selected establishments in adjacent counties. 

The surveys are being used to collect information on key business practices in the central and upstate areas of New York in the electronic age. The project aims to provide information for the first time on policies such as the nature and use of new technologies and the implications of these changes for the organization of work. 

One aim is to see how the incidence of certain practices compares with national benchmarks. (For example, is there more or less use of e-commerce in local firms?  How do rates of training and compensation levels for workers using new technologies compare with workers elsewhere?) 

Another objective is to see if they can identify the effects of different practices on business performance. (For example, are firms with higher levels of information technology more productive than other businesses?)

Other Survey Projects:
2000