SGA Conducts Social Life Survey

Author: Campus Editor in Chief

The Student Government Association (SGA) at Middlebury was forced to re-write a social life survey which they initially distributed to students before spring break. The SGA did not receive the 80 percent quota of student responses they had hoped for and hope to distribute the new survey sometime this week.
The impetus for the original survey came from the Social Life Committee, a body formed by SGA President Ginny Hunt '03 in the fall of 2002.
The group is composed of administrators and leaders of student groups, all of whom in some way are directly involved with social planning, as well as student senators and faculty advisers.
The committee was created, explained Hunt, to respond to concern that a lack of social options on campus is leading students to go off-campus, resulting in an increase in drunken driving.
The committee's purpose was "to bring together all those involved in the larger areas of social policies and event planning" in order to better facilitate discussion and implementation of ideas and policies.
The committee met several times in the fall in order to make "a comprehensive assessment of social life on campus" and determine relevant strategies.
After some discussion, it was decided that a survey of the student body at Middlebury was needed to better understand student behavior and student preferences regarding the social options available on campus. The committee decided to create a survey similar to one that was conducted by the SGA in 1996.
One result from that survey was the creation of The Grille, which now functions as a major center of social life for students on campus.
The survey sent out before break, went to students selected at random in order to to elicit responses that would reflect the opinion of the overall student body. It asked students what types of events on campus they attend, and how often they do so.
Hunt hopes that the survey to be conducted will also provide enough helpful student input and "will function in a similar way [to the 1996 survey] - to make substantive, long-term recommendations on social life policy" in order to directly benefit the student body by the creation of other viable additions to the social scene at Middlebury.
After reviewing the results of the survey, the SGA Cabinet, SGA Senate, and Social Life Committee itself would be the primary sources for such recommendations.