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It is not easy to get someone on the phone at home in the evening to answer more than 70 questions about the state of affairs in the Sacramento area.
But the students of Sociology Professor Amy Liu do it year after year. Last spring they conducted more than 1,100 interviews for an annual survey that generates widespread media interest.
“The success of the surveys would not be possible without the outstanding and very professional work of our students,” Liu says.
Working through the University’s Institute for Social Research, Liu has been conducting “The Annual Survey of Public Opinion and Life Quality in the Sacramento Region” since 2002. It is the key project of two courses required for sociology majors: Research Methods and Data Analysis.
Planning for the survey work begins early in the fall semester in the Research Methods class where Liu gets her students thinking about current events and possible questions. “The students are in touch with the issues in their communities,” Liu says. “For instance, one student was very involved in affordable housing and so we asked questions about the issue on last year’s survey.”
In addition to students, Liu seeks input from her colleagues and she stays on top of local and national issues as well. For her next survey, Liu is already considering questions on issues such as construction of the Auburn Dam. “We formulate questions that will provide good, accurate information on how the public feels about issues. The surveys are helpful to policymakers who often have no other information on how the public feels,” Liu says.
Last spring, for example, Liu’s students interviewed 1,122 Sacramento Region residents on subjects ranging from a proposed arena in Sacramento to the Iraq War. After collecting the data, Liu and her students analyze it and write a series of survey reports, broken down by topic. Each of the students then writes a research paper based on the survey work.
“The students are always very proud that they have been a part of work that has so much value to the region,” Liu says.
»View the reports at www.csus.edu/ssis/annual_survey.htm
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