Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9411100018
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CRYSTAL CHAPPELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Eight students and a research assistant from the college's Center for Community Research have interviewed about 200 Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem residents since Sept. 1. Four hundred residents will be interviewed by the end of October.
The poll focuses on general attitudes toward subjects such as politics, religion, leisure activities, health care and teen pregnancy, said Harry Wilson, director of the research center.
The poll is one of the nation's few surveys conducted personally, Wilson said. Unlike telephone surveys, personal interviews improve sampling by reaching a few people who do not have telephones and by avoiding double sampling of people who have two telephone lines, Wilson said. Personal interviews also improve the educational experience for the students, who receive a course credit for their survey work. Each student interviews people in different neighborhoods.
"They are learning as much from that as anything else," Wilson said. "They're interacting with people in different walks of life."
The poll chooses residents randomly and has a 5 percent margin of error. If every adult in the valley were surveyed, there would be a 95 percent chance the results would fall within 5 percentage points of those found in the poll.
Results from the survey will be published by the poll's co-sponsor, the Roanoke Times & World-News, and by the research center. The center will send a lengthy report to local and state government officials, libraries and about 200 other locations.
The pollsters are: political science major Kelley Garst of Roanoke; political science major Nancy Jones of Glendale, N.Y.; criminal justice and sociology major Jackie McBride of Roanoke; criminal justice major Michele Musselwhite of Rocky Mount; sociology major Kristen Nowicki of Vernon, Vt; international relations major Ellen Stroud of Roanoke; history major Thursa Sotak of North Brunswick, N.J.; international relations major Chris Wieder of Richmond; and the research center's research assistant Karen McClellan of Roanoke.
by CNB