Analysis of Student Awareness Regarding Elections at Conestoga College

This report presents the findings of a survey conducted among students at Conestoga College regarding their awareness and perceptions of student elections. The survey, commissioned by college administrators, aimed to assess student understanding of elections, identify associated issues and opportunities, and analyze the potential for improving student engagement in the electoral process. The methodology involved both primary and secondary research, including questionnaires distributed to 100 students, categorized by gender, and a review of existing literature and college records. Key findings revealed varying levels of awareness, with a significant portion of students either unaware or uncertain about student elections. The report analyzes student responses to questions about their awareness of elections, issues faced during elections, and the frequency with which elections should be conducted. The report concludes with recommendations for increasing student awareness and engagement in the electoral process.

Running head: STUDENT ELECTIONS
Student Elections
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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Executive summary
This report was based on a survey carried out among the college students regarding election. The
survey was carried out by a client to assess awareness among students regarding election and the
issues and opportunities faced by them while conducting the same. The survey response was
analyzed and represented in the form of a pie chart.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Objective......................................................................................................................................3
Rationale......................................................................................................................................3
Methodology................................................................................................................................4
Research findings.............................................................................................................................4
Students’ opinions.......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9
Appendix........................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Background
There is an issue among the students regarding their understanding and realization of
election. In order to look into this matter a survey was carried out among the students of
Conestoga College. The survey was conducted by three clients, Lee Beatty, President of
Conestoga Students Inc.; Mickey Macintyre, Manager of Conestoga Athletics and Recreation
Department; and Robin Spark, Director of Facilities and Operations Department. Three of these
clients are responsible for facilitating operations at the Conestoga College. However, for the 1st
investigation on student election, Lee Beatty was the major client. The survey was conducted
among those students who were enrolled in the Course of professional writing skills for business.
Objective
The research was carried out with the following objectives:
 to find out about the concept and awareness of election among the college students in
Conestoga
 to analyze the ability of presenting the research findings
 to look for any kind of issues and opportunities arriving due to the survey analysis
Rationale
The research was carried out to find out if the students at Conestoga College were aware
of the election system and their thinking and idea about the same. The survey would help the
client in getting an idea about the extent to which the students were aware (Pritzker & Burwell,
2016). The appropriate quantity of research outcome would help Lee Beatty to assess their

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knowledge and look for any necessary training on the same subject. The survey was also
beneficial in determining the issues and opportunities associated with the students’
understanding of election. The survey findings tended to be effective in highlighting the gaps in
their understanding and the necessary resources that could be provided to improve their
understanding.
Methodology
For the research methodology, both primary and secondary sources of data were
collected. The primary sources of data were gathered from surveying the students through
questionnaires. The survey sample was divided based on gender and there were three questions
in the questionnaire. There were three options provided against each question- yes/ no/ cannot
say. The total sample size was 100 and the three questions were-
 Are you aware of students’ elections?
 Do you face any issues while conducting elections?
 Do you feel elections need to be often conducted as per norms?
For collecting secondary sources of information, previous literature was reviewed to find out
about the researches carried out on similar topics. The college record was checked to find out if
the students have participated in similar kinds of survey earlier (Yamamoto & Kushin, 2014).
Given below are the findings of the survey to focus on the extent of awareness among students
about elections.
Research findings
The research findings of the survey are given below.

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Question 1-Gender
Male 50
Female 50
Total 100
Question 2: Are you aware of student's
elections
Yes 35
No 55
Cannot Say 15
Question 3: Do you face any issues while conducting elections
Yes 25
No 25
Cannot Say 50
Question 4: Do you feel elections need to be often conducted as per
norms
Yes 45
No 45
Cannot Say 10
33%
52%
14%
Awareness
1
2
3

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Fig: Quantitative research findings
Source: as created by the author
The sample size was 100 and it was divided on gender basis consisting of 50 males and
50 females. The first question of the survey was- are you aware of students’ elections? In this
question 35 out of 100 replied in positive and 35 replied in negative. The rest 15 was not sure of
their answer. Therefore, it can be analyzed from the answer that, there was an equal distribution
among the awareness and unawareness of students regarding elections. Only a minor part of the
Conestoga students was doubtful of students’ elections. They could not reply either in ‘yes’ or in
‘no’. It can be assumed that the students were not aware of elections because they were involved
in other extra- curricular activities such as sports or other events.
The second question was- do you face any issues while conducting elections? In this
question, too there was an equal distribution among the positive and negative responses of the
students. 25 students replied in ‘yes’ and 25 of them replied in ‘no’, whereas 50 students replied
in the last option of ‘cannot say’. Therefore, it can be evaluated from the response of the
students that as only 35 of the students were aware about students’ elections therefore it is
obvious that the rest would not be able to answer about the issues faced in conducting
election. The hypothesis can be drawn in this part that there were not many students
involved in the election part, which lessened the scope of any issues or opportunities.
The third question was- do you feel elections need to be often conducted as per norms? In
reply to this question, there was a huge but equal response in the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ part. 45 of the
students have answered in positive and 45 of them have replied in negative. The rest 10 students

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have ticked in the last option of ‘cannot say’. Thus, it can be analyzed that approximately half of
the sample was interested in students’ election to be conducted at a regular interval. However,
another major part of the students was not interested in the regular occurrence of the election.
The underlying reason behind this might be that they were more focused on their studies rather
than elections, which they thought to be distracting.
The secondary sources of data collected from the college record analyzed that students’
election was uncommon among the Conestoga students and therefore their response was low in
the survey. There was no existence of election and students’ union in the college. However, the
students who answered in positive in all the three questions were mostly outsiders and new-
comers from other colleges. According to Eaves & Husser (2017), there was a long history of
student involvement with the society and their decision in electing candidates. It was found out
from the general record that on- campus voting has provided the way for engaging students in
importuning decision- making process by strategic thinking (Amuedo-Dorantes & Sparber,
2014). Therefore, from the primary and secondary research, no opportunities or issues
were found out.
Students’ opinions
After the survey and analysis of the results, few students were called for an interaction
with the client. The students’ responses were compared with the hypotheses to check on the
authenticity of prior assumptions. For the first question, the assumption was found out to be true
as the students were involved in different sports activities and music so they “did not like to
waste their time in irrelevant things”. Another student has remarked for the second question that,
he is not going to be a politician in the future so there is no reason for getting involved in
students’ election,. In this case, the hypotheses turned out to be true that the lesser involvement

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of students in the college election decreased the scope of any kind of opportunities or challenges
from it. For the last question, a student has directly said, “I am not bothered about who wins or
loses; it is not going to change my life in any way”. The hypothesis was completely true in this
respect as the students were not eager to involve in any kind of distracting things such as
election.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from this survey that the students need to be made aware of the
importance of election. A training session can be organized for their benefit so that they get the
requisite knowledge. It is important to gather some idea about election as it will benefit them in
future.

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References
Amuedo-Dorantes, C., & Sparber, C. (2014). In-state tuition for undocumented immigrants and
its impact on college enrollment, tuition costs, student financial aid, and
indebtedness. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 49, 11-24.
Eaves, C. P., & Husser, J. A. (2017). Engaging a Campus During a Tumultuous Election: A Case
Study. PS, Political Science & Politics, 50(4), 993.
Pritzker, S., & Burwell, C. (2016). Promoting election-related policy practice among social work
students. Journal of Social Work Education, 52(4), 434-447.
Yamamoto, M., & Kushin, M. J. (2014). More harm than good? Online media use and political
disaffection among college students in the 2008 election. Journal of Computer‐Mediated
Communication, 19(3), 430-445.
Bibliography
Awaida-Nachabe, N. (2017, May). International Students’ Perspective on the US Election.
In Global Conference on Education and Research (GLOCER 2017) (p. 420).
Kim, Y., & Khang, H. (2014). Revisiting civic voluntarism predictors of college students’
political participation in the context of social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 36,
114-121.
Levy, B. L., Solomon, B. G., & Collet-Gildard, L. (2016). Fostering political interest among
youth during the 2012 presidential election: Instructional opportunities and challenges in
a swing state. Educational Researcher, 45(9), 483-495.

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Mette, K., & Bertolini, K. (2018). Fear, Anxiety, and the 2016 Presidential Election: What are
the Effects on Student Achievement?. Empowering Research for Educators, 2(1), 5.
Powers, E. M., Moeller, S. D., & Yuan, Y. (2016). Political Engagement During a Presidential
Election Year: A Case Study of Media Literacy Students. Journal of Media Literacy
Education, 8(1), 1-14.
Shin, J. C., Kim, H. H., & Choi, H. S. (2014). The evolution of student activism and its influence
on tuition fees in South Korean universities. Studies in Higher Education, 39(3), 441-454.

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Appendix
The research findings of the survey are given below.
Question 1-Gender
Male 50
Female 50
Total 100
Question 2: Are you aware of student's
elections
Yes 35
No 55
Cannot Say 15
Question 3: Do you face any issues while conducting elections
Yes 25
No 25
Cannot Say 50
Question 4: Do you feel elections need to be often conducted as per
norms
Yes 45
No 45
Cannot Say 10

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33%
52%
14%
Awareness
1
2
3
Fig: Quantitative research findings
Source: as created by the author