CMU students help Union Township conduct survey

Union Township’s Vision 20/20 project is getting a little help from Central Michigan University students.

Sociology and political science students and township officials are collaborating with the Center for Applied Research and Rural Studies to conduct a survey for township residents.

“Students in the classes are gaining interviewing skills,” said Mary Senter, CARRS director and professor of sociology, anthropology and social work. “They are also becoming familiar with survey research, more generally.”

According to the agreement, CMU and the township wrote the computer-assisted phone survey and are administering it to a random sample of Union Township residents — including students — to determine their experiences with and opinions about township services and related issues.

“The questions are structured so that answers to earlier questions may determine subsequent questions,” said Union Township Zoning Administrator Woody Woodruff.

The information will be used to help with the making of the new master plan, including budgeting, planning and goal setting, and should be ready by end of the year, Woodruff said.

“The survey work should be completed in the fall semester, analysis in the winter semester,” he said.

Senter said the survey is being conducted with the help of students in assistant professor of sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Jean Toner’s SOC 350: Social Research Methodologies class and associate professor of political science Moataz Fattah’s PSC 280: Introduction to Empirical Methods of Political Research class.

“They will staff the lab for three-hour shifts, inviting people from randomly generated phone numbers to participate in the survey,” Toner said. “Toward the end of the semester, students will also facilitate focus groups with student residents of Union Township to gather their opinions and beliefs about services to students provided by Union Township.”

Collaborating with CARRS has resulted in savings for Union Township.

“Work such as this in the private sector would cost eight to 10 times the $8,000 cost,” Woodruff said.