Get your vote on: Student name-change poll is now available on PAWS

Students at Georgia College & State University are now able to voice opinions on the possible name change thanks to a proposal by the Student Government Association.

Participants of the survey, which is online, are asked if they want GC&SU to keep its current name, or if they would prefer The Georgia College, Georgia’s Public Liberal Arts University.

SGA President Loman Martin proposed the idea, which was discussed at the Jan. 27 meeting.

“SGA will e-mail students through their Bobcat accounts and let them know how to get into the system to take the survey,” said Martin. “Once the survey is complete on all ends, faculty, staff, alumni and students, we will have to go through on auditing format. The auditing didn’t even need to be done if people as a whole are not for the name, and that’s why the process has been delayed.”

University Relations Director Mitch Clarke agrees that PAWS is the best method of receiving as much student opinion on the matter as possible. Clarke helped create a link on the InfoPage that will provide students with more detail on when and how the survey will be done; it also explains why GC&SU President Dorothy Leland is going through with the survey proposal.

“It’s a fine idea,” said Clarke. “All students have access to PAWS, so all can get to it wherever they are with computer access to take the survey.”

A previous obstacle with online surveys was making sure there were no repeat voters, Clarke said.

“Before, there was no way to ensure everyone voted only once,” said Clarke. “Now we know everyone has an equal voice in this survey. My part was also to make sure we are asking the same question to everyone, faculty and staff.”

Martin said it is important to remind participants that this survey alone will not deliver a clear verdict on the university name change.

“The important thing for students to know is that this is not a vote,” said Martin. “It is to see what people think. There are many factors. This will tell whether it moves on to the next step.”

The SGA and Leland will present the results of the name-change survey to the GC&SU community once it is completed.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 4 2005. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry