After passing an Oct. 3 resolution insisting that the Administration reinstate the gender neutral housing policy from last spring, the WSA decided at its weekly meeting last Sunday to conduct a poll to gauge student interest on the issue.
The online poll, at wsavoting.wesleyan.edu, is open to all Wesleyan students and will end Friday Oct. 22 at 12:01a.m.
“Gender neutral housing policy appears to be a significant issue for students on campus,” said WSA Coordinator Ali Gomer ’05. “The WSA wants to confirm this with a poll that shows just how many students are for or against this idea at Wesleyan. We feel that having concrete data like this will help us show the Administration that this is a serious demand and needs immediate attention.”
According to Gomer, the idea of conducting a student-wide poll was introduced the night that the resolution was unanimously passed. WSA president Emily Polak ’05 said that she and other WSA members foresaw following the resolution with a student poll from the outset.
“We always knew that passing a resolution was merely the first step,” Polak said. “This year’s WSA is looking to be far more proactive and move beyond simply passing resolutions.”
“The Argus made an excellent point in last week’s editorial when it stated that previous WSA resolutions haven’t really accomplished much with the Administration after they were passed and that further action was needed,” Gomer said. “So we want everyone to participate and vote in the polls.”
Gomer will be organizing a campaign to publicize the gender neutral housing poll. According to Gomer, publicity will include posters and flyers and may also include laptop polling booths set up during lunchtime at the Campus Center. Gomer said it was important for the results to be ready before Homecoming weekend so that parents, alumni and university trustees can be informed of the student body’s position on the gender neutral housing issue.
“It is important to the WSA, and especially to my position as the coordinator of the assembly, that students feel the WSA wants to include them in the decision making process and to take an active role in campus politics,” Gomer said.
Some WSA members recognize that, although the assembly is unanimously in support of gender neutral housing, other students may not be.
“As a freshman I’m very impressed that the WSA is putting in so much effort to make sure that it’s moving in concert with student opinion,” said Jacob Mirsky ’08, who is a member of the Community Outreach Committee (COCo).
Last year the WSA conducted a referendum on off-campus dining, asking if the student body was in favor of using points at off-campus eateries. The result of this referendum affected policy, however, whereas this poll will only gather information about student sentiments.
Polak could not remember a time in the last four years that a poll had been used to gauge student opinion on an issue, but she said it was a great idea.
“I think [polling] is a great means to elicit student opinion and has potential to spark student interest,” Polak said.
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