News Briefs
News & Opinion
Sweet Mother of Survey! The Student Opinion Poll The ASARB recently released a study measuring religious bodies in the United States. The study indicated that there are currently around 60 million Catholic adherents in the country. The study defined adherents as those who have an affiliation to a congregation, regardless of whether or not they are members of that congregation. Massachusetts was identified as the state containing the most Catholic adherents, comprising 44.9% of the population. Tennessee rests on the opposite side of the spectrum, where Catholic adherents makeup only about 3.5% of the populace.
On Tuesday, November 5th, Virginia will hold its gubernatorial election. Recent polls have Democrat Terry McAuliffe as holding a double-digit lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli. McAuliffe is doing especially well among women, where he holds a 24 point lead over his opponent.
The NSA has recently been accused of listening in on the private conversations of around 35 foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to the NSA, President Obama had no knowledge of these specific operations until recently. Officials say that it is understandable that Obama would have been out of the loop, as the NSA has so many eavesdropping programs that the president simply cannot be kept up to date on all of them.
On Monday, October 28th, an Israeli air strike hit two hidden rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip. No injuries have been reported. Israeli military personnel said that the strike was initiated in response to recent terrorist activity, which involved several rockets being launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The Chester-Belloc debate society has recently come out with an extensive guide, describing its mission, life, and achievements. The guide is over twenty-five pages in length and covers a variety of subjects. The guide includes an FAQ, providing answers on topics ranging from membership in the society, to dress-code for debates.
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By Jake Morgan ‘14 Throughout the duration of this semester, each one of you The mission of the SPAC is to serve as a channel of will most likely receive approximately 527 surveys in your inbox, all communication between the Christendom Student Body and Dr. of which will ask for feedback regarding various aspects of O’Donnell. The SPAC is composed of the Student Body President, campus life. Surveys on Welcome Weekend, housing, SAC events, your elected Class Officers, the Head RAs, and four other students intramurals, career development, Team Edward vs. Team Jacob, and appointed by Caitlin Bowers and Dr. Dorman. The SPAC members other Christendom essentials will flood your emails sporadically are instructed to read through the survey results in an objective throughout the year. manner and abstract pressing issues and common threads. After After providing feedback upon feedback, you will surely sorting through the results, SPAC discusses the top issues and unsuffer from “survey burnout,” which consequently procures the met needs presented by the Christendom Student Body. inevitable reaction from every student: “I will never fill out another survey Next, the SPAC members disperse, YOUR feedback is essential, and each meet with various department heads again.” As a result of the lack of survey participation, the folks in administraand staff members, and discuss these and every comment is considered. tion will then suffer from “feedback needs. The objective of these interviews withdrawal,” thereby leading the Chrisis to determine whether or not the tendom staff to desperately distribute more surveys. department heads are aware of the issues, and if so, what steps are It’s a vicious cycle. being taken to address them. However, if there’s one survey you should definitely not Next, the SPAC members meet with Dr. O’Donnell in his ignore, it’s the Student Opinion Poll. office to present the most pressing needs from the survey as well as Distributed to the Student Body once each year, the Stuthe results of the department interviews. Dr. O’Donnell leads an indent Opinion Poll is the mother of all surveys for two reasons: what depth discussion on the results, asks questions, and seeks input from it does and what happens after you complete it. the SPAC 1. What it does: The Poll requests anonymous feedback members. regarding every aspect of Christendom campus life (Operations, Dr. O’Donnell then takes the results of the surveys and Food Services, Academics, Student Life, Spiritual Life, and other SPAC meetings and shares them with department heads and other departments). The students are asked to rate each department on a faculty and staff members in order to discuss how to 1 to 5 scale as well as provide both positive and negative qualitative enhance the quality of campus life at Christendom. feedback for each category. So, there you have it; a survey complete with action items In other words, if you’ve been dying to report the toilet on and follow-up meetings. The Student Opinion Poll is the most your floor that’s always flooding, or how amazing the blue Powerade effective survey distributed to the students, and it’s certainly not is in the Commons, or how you can’t stand people singing “Phansomething to glance over in your inbox. tom of the Opera” all the time, this is the survey for you. Only about 25% of the Student Body typically participates 2. What happens after you’ve completed the Poll: Okay, in this survey, but the survey is 100% of what your SPAC presents this is the best part. to Dr. O’Donnell. Once you’ve all submitted your rants and raves, each and So, come November, you will all be receiving the mother every response is compiled into a report which is then distributed to of all surveys via email. I hope that you will not pass up this opyour friendly neighborhood Student Presidential Advisory Council portunity that allows for the feedback and improvements necessary (SPAC). to make your time at Christendom the best it can be.
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On Tuesday, October 29th, Christendom closed in on the acquisition of Shore Stop. The move came in response to student demand for an end to Stephen Treacy’s monopoly over on-campus snacks. Students can now use their student ids at Shore Stop to obtain a free carton of cigarettes with every purchase exceeding ten dollars.
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