Buried poll nuggets
Tuesday, Sep 8, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m not sure that the Tribune’s headline “University of Illinois admissions scandal hurt its reputation, poll shows” completely matches up with the Tribune’s poll results…
Over half of the respondents said the university’s reputation wasn’t harmed. And four out of five think it’s a common practice throughout the country. So, there’s been damage, but not according to the majority.
And it doesn’t look like Illinoisans are sure about whom to blame, either…
Of the 700 residents surveyed, 35 percent said they blamed trustees most, compared with 26 percent for legislators and other elected officials and 17 percent for university personnel.
Also, you’d think that when about 75 percent favor a particular reform, it’d get more play instead of being buried deep in the story…
About three out of four respondents said trustees should be elected, not appointed by the governor.
…Adding… And after whacking the heck out of the U of I for months, this is the Tribune’s suggested reform of the legislative scholarship program? Really?
Putting the [scholarship] decision in the hands of the universities would make it far less likely that the scholarships would be used to buy friends or pay political debts. And educators are far more qualified to select the recipients than politicians.
* Meanwhile, deep in a story about the economy lies this little buried polling nugget…
Like Keith, 67 percent of Illinoisans say they’re either not making ends meet or making just enough to get by.
There’s a big reason to be politically afraid of raising taxes.
* And towards the end of the Trib’s “red light camera” poll story, we find this…
Just 31 percent of Downstate voters said they would like to see cameras installed where they live, while 57 percent said they would not. Illustrating the NIMBY syndrome, however, 54 percent of Downstaters surveyed also said they thought traffic cameras were a good idea.
Overall, anti-camera sentiment was strongest in the Cook County suburbs, which have experienced an explosion of traffic cameras in the last three years. More than half of suburban Cook residents surveyed said they disliked the notion of cameras, and 58 percent said they didn’t want one where they lived.
Thoughts?
- CircularFiringSquad - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:25 am:
Capt Fax:
Apparently you did not get the memo about not interfering with the Trib’s Pulitzer Prize entry. Never mind the Trib’s paid pollster could not design a question that would have gotten +90% “yes”
Perhaps they should have asked:
“Do you agree the slimey, corrupt scandal that may the the target of a federal probe ( actually the feds are after bid rigging stuff, opps that may blow a secret)will slime up the big U’s reputation?
Now that would have got you a big yessirrebob response.
- Fan of CapFax - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:26 am:
The good folks of Southern Illinois may run a stop sign or two every now and then. But they’d probably go around the block, come back and wave, then make their way to city hall and pay up. Illinois has the cream of the crop down there. No pun intented.
- Deep South - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:26 am:
The poll shows that a certain number of people “believe” U of I’s reputation has been damaged. That doesn’t mean its reputation HAS been damaged. How do you measure that? Enrollment numbers? I don’t think Illinois’ enrollment numbers will decrease because of this.
- Deep South - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:28 am:
===The good folks of Southern Illinois may run a stop sign or two every now and then.====
Southern Illinois is just a small part of “downstate.” What about the rest of the crop?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:33 am:
I’ll bet there’s no shortage of kids applying for U of I, so I’m not sure that the poll really means anything.
- Plutocrat03 - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:40 am:
The implementation of Red Light Cameras in the Chicagoland area has been a disgrace.
RLCs are a legitimate safety tool, but according to the Federal Highway Safety Administration should be the last resort when improving safety at targeted intersections.
In the majority of instances, the cameras have been placed at intersections without any kind of engineering study. Furthermore, the lights have generally been put at intersection which go not have a history of red light running.
Since there is a well documented statistical increase in rear end collisions at RLC controlled intersections, placing them at intersections where red light running is uncommon, puts the public at risk with no commensurate increase in safety.
- Shore - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 10:48 am:
I disagree with you on a lot of things, but the tribune gets carried away with itself a lot, and the U of I survey is a good indicator. It was a good story, but if you don’t like the results of a poll, don’t publish it.
As far as taxes go, one thing I learned from working on the Hill when we lost our majority in 2006 is how when a party hasn’t been beaten in awhile it starts to believe it’s untouchable and can ignore reality. I see that happening with Illinois dems on taxes. As I said on team america’s blog, I bought $10 worth of hot dogs in chicago on saturday night and paid $1 in taxes. This before these tax hikes will hit me in other areas. And then I get to watch chicago tonight and see this hendon guy ask for 40 million for a school I’ve never heard of while I read sun-times stories about forest preserve workers making 6 figures to cut trees.
Time for a change.
- Cindy Lou - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 11:01 am:
===The good folks of Southern Illinois may run a stop sign or two every now and then.====
—Southern Illinois is just a small part of “downstate.” What about the rest of the crop?–
Out here in the sticks (West Central Illinois) where the ‘crop’ grows and IDOT no longer mows much, if one runs a stop sign it’s cause you could not see it, otherwise the next thing others see is the EMTs hosing ya off the road.
- Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 11:03 am:
The Trib. has certainly beaten this investigation of theirs to death, and the poll was clearly designed to try to back their perceived significance of their work. They thought it was important obviously, so they created a poll to show their naysayers that it was important.
So what’s the result? In the end the Trustees get whacked (except those who loudly complained about it) and maybe the top Administrators. As for the politicians in Springfield who for the most part created the pressure on admissions to begin with? Not a thing will happen to them when they are perhaps most culpable.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 12:01 pm:
The reason Quinn loses on this issue is because it isn’t a big deal, but it became one when he whiffed at cleaning it up. He needed to have shown determination and leadership by removing two trustees who decided to play games instead of their jobs by standing up to him. By backing down, Quinn is the loser.
The University’s reputation isn’t harmed by this. The Tribune is just flapping their jaws about something few really care about.
As to electing the trustees, that is what voters say whenever they seem to be asked if they care enough. Their actions contradict their answers - not that there is anything wrong with that. The question was dumb, that is all.
- Ghost - Tuesday, Sep 8, 09 @ 3:36 pm:
The poll somewhat highlites the vagaries of polls.
82% think this is common practice, so this group basically expects this ishappening eveywhere. But at least 20% of that very same grp says they now think less of U of I; except technically they thought this was already going on as common practice….
100% of polls can be made to say what you want 50% of the time….(Dish TV add)