Students, staff and faculty, along with members of the Towson community will be contacted at random for a survey concerning the impact of the University's growth in the next couple weeks. The survey is part of the University's association with the American Democracy Project and the deliberative polling process. James Roberts, chairman of the political science department and coordinator of Towson's deliberative polling program, said he hopes for participation from at least 400 students, 400 community members and 250 faculty and staff at the follow-up sessions on May 10.
"We are trying to get the opinions of those people affected by Towson from the area in which the University resides," Roberts said. "The goal of deliberative polling and the American Democracy Project is to develop and better democratic process."
Students, faculty and staff will be contacted via e-mail at random while a contracted company will begin making phone calls to community members to conduct the survey.
Roberts developed the focus of the survey based on current issues the University is involved in. Towson's continued growth has led to an increase in the number of students housed in nearby apartments and houses in the community. It has also added stress to departments that have larger numbers of students joining the program each year.
"We are trying to find out what effects a growing metropolitan university has on the area and on the university community itself," Roberts said. "We are going to be getting up near 25,000 students. This is an opportunity to find out what people think about this, identify some of the issues and then we will deliberate and find how to make the progress better."
Some frustrated members of the community have seen this survey as an opportunity to voice their displeasure with the University's growth into the community. During the March meeting of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, president Ed Kilcullen encouraged community representatives to contact members of their neighborhood about preparing for these calls.
On May 10, when those participating in the polls attend the follow-up sessions, they will have an opportunity to engage with members of the administration and a representative from the student body to address concerns.
"The community sees this as an important time for them to speak up and work with the University. A lot of their concerns are very strong and they want immediate action," Roberts said. "I don't think this is going to be the kind of thing that policy will come out of, but it's part of the process that may help look at policy and work on relations."
Special assistant to the vice president of student affairs and coordinator of civic engagement initiatives Darcy Accardi could not ensure any of the results from the survey or the following discussions would lead directly to policy.
"At the end of the program, we will disseminate the information to the stakeholders including administrators and policy makers and other people around campus," Accardi said. "What they do from there I cannot say."
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