Department of Government email: wrm1@cornell.edu
123 McGraw Hall phone: 607/255-3868
Ithaca, New York 14853-4601 fax: 607/255-4530 Walter R. Mebane, Jr. Associate Professor
Press Release
Ithaca, NY
November 3, 1996
(three pages)
Cornell Students Prefer Clinton
A pre-election survey sponsored by the Cornell Department of Government
shows that of Cornell students who are likely to vote on Tuesday, 63 percent
support President Clinton to 18 percent for Bob Dole (sampling error is
plus or minus 5.2 percent). Ralph Nader tallies support from 5 percent
of students while Ross Perot is preferred by 3 percent. Three percent support
other candidates and seven percent are undecided. Compared with the most
recent national CBS News/New
York Times Poll,
from Oct 27-29, which reports Clinton with 54 percent, Dole with 36 percent
and Perot with 8 percent, Clinton appears to have an even greater advantage
on the Cornell campus than he does around the country.
Supervised by graduate student Jonathan Wand, twelve undergraduate students
in the course ``Campaigns and Elections'' (Government
317, Professor Walter
Mebane) completed telephone interviews with 346 randomly selected Cornell
undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Interviews were conducted
from October 26 through October 30.
Other Highlights from the Survey
Partisanship
Cornell students express identification with the Democratic party much
more than they do with the Republicans. Forty-four percent call themselves
Democrats, compared to 22 percent who consider themselves Republicans.
Even more students consider themselves independents than they do Republicans,
as 25 percent say they are independents. Moreover, only 37 percent of the
Democrats consider themselves strong supporters of that party while only
22 percent of Republicans consider themselves strong supporters of the
Republican party.
Right/Wrong Track
The country is headed in the right direction, say 52 percent of Cornell
students. Only 29 percent say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Eight percent of Cornell students believe the country is heading in neither
the right nor wrong direction, and another 11 percent do not offer an opinion.
Student Electoral Participation
Eighty-five percent of Cornell students who are U.S. citizens are registered
to vote. This proportion is near the figure in the October 27-29 CBS/NYT
poll of 81 percent registered among adults. Ninety-one percent of Cornell
students who are registered to vote say that they are very likely or somewhat
likely to vote.
Views of Candidates
Sixty-eight percent of Cornell students have a favorable view of Bill
Clinton, while only 35 percent have a favorable view of Bob Dole. Conversely,
64 percent have an unfavorable view of Dole, but only 31 percent of respondents
consider Clinton unfavorably. Ross Perot garners favorable opinions from
only 20 percent of students, while 77 percent have an unfavorable opinion
of him.
Views of Presidency
Cornell students overwhelmingly say that it is not important if a president
has never used drugs or if a president is male. Sixty-three percent believe
that a president's drug use is unimportant. Eighty-nine percent believe
that it is not important for a president to be male.
Homosexual Marriage
Homosexual couples should be allowed to get legally married, most Cornell
students say. Sixty-nine percent agree with legalizing homosexual marriages,
while 23 percent of respondents disagree.
Affirmative Action
When respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement ``educational
institutions, employers, and governments should continue their efforts
to ensure equal opportunity for women and minorities,'' 88 percent agreed
with the statement, and only 11 percent of students disagreed. However,
when subsequently asked whether they support or oppose ``affirmative action,''
only 59 percent of Cornell students supported it, while 28 percent were
opposed.
Abortion
Cornell Students are strongly pro-choice. Seventy-five percent of respondents
say that abortion ``should be a matter of the woman's personal choice.''
Four percent say that abortion ``should never be permitted'' and 24 percent
of students say that abortion ``should only be permitted in a special case,
such as rape, incest, or if a woman's health is in jeopardy.''
How the Survey Was Done
Twelve undergraduate students in Government
317 volunteered to take part in constructing, implementing and analyzing
this Cornell survey, as a class
project. Guided by Jonathan Wand, students performed all the functions
required for implementing a professional quality survey, including sampling,
designing the questionnaire, calling and interviewing respondents, and
analyzing the data. An initial random sample of registered Cornell students
was produced by Scott Steiner of the office of University Registrar David
Yeh.
Using both original questions and questions taken from the National
Science Foundation's American National Election
Studies, the survey team was able to relate traditional survey efforts
to more student-oriented issues. For six weeks of the semester the students
built the survey
questionnaire, writing, pre-testing and re-writing questions to
determine the least biased and most meaningful item wordings and question
ordering. In practicing for the interviews, the students worked to avoid
encouraging particular responses during the interview. The survey project
took advantage of the World Wide Web to exchange ideas among group members
and to allow the data from the completed interviews to be compiled
quickly. Many more results from the survey are available from