Research Report: Student Awareness of Elections at Conestoga College

This report investigates the level of student awareness regarding elections and activities within Conestoga Students Inc. (CSI) at Conestoga College. The research involved surveying 88 students, revealing a significant lack of awareness about CSI activities and student elections. Findings indicate that a majority of students are unaware of CSI's services, student representatives, and the election process. The study highlights a low interest in voting and a lack of student engagement in CSI affairs. The report explores the reasons behind this lack of awareness, including poor communication between CSI and the student body. To address these issues, the report recommends that Conestoga College enhance communication strategies to increase student awareness and encourage participation in CSI activities, including elections. The report concludes that there is a significant communication gap between CSI and the students, which leads to the students being unaware of the different activities and services of the students.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Professional Reading and Writing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

1
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Background information:.............................................................................................................2
Organization:...............................................................................................................................2
Purpose and scope:......................................................................................................................2
Discussion on the awareness of the students about students’ election in the college:....................2
Findings of the research:..................................................................................................................3
Reasons for lack of awareness among the students explained:.......................................................4
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations:..........................................................................................................................9
References:....................................................................................................................................10

2
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Introduction:
Background information:
An institute of advanced and technological learning, Conestoga College is a public
college situated in Ontario, Canada. The college is one of the largest colleges around the globe
with more the 11,000 full time students and three times more part time students. The college also
have 3500 student apprentices. In order to ensure proper functioning of the college the students
have the right to elect their representatives for different positions. In this document a detailed
discussion on the awareness among the students of Conestoga about the election and election
process is made.
Organization:
Schools, colleges, societies, business organizations and other forms of organizations
conduct elections to maintain democracy in these establishments. Apart from that the
responsibilities are assigned to the representatives of the student to ensure proper functioning of
the college. A detailed discussion on students’ awareness about election, its importance, the
process of election and other important aspects shall be covered (Bracken, 2017).
Purpose and scope:
The purpose of the research here is to find out important facts about the students’ involvement in
the activities and services of Conestoga Students Inc. The research is focussed to find out the
level of awareness among the students of Conestoga College about the students’ election and
activities in general.

3
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Discussion on the awareness of the students about students’ election in the college:
In order to assess the awareness among the students about the students’ election in the college it
was important to conduct a detailed study on the subject. The findings of the study made certain
assertions very clear. The study was conducted on the students from different courses, different
semesters, and different background. There was no pattern to select any particular types of
students at the expense of others.
Findings of the research:
Questions were asked to 88 students from different courses in the college. The findings from the
answers are shown below.
Most students have no idea about the activities of the college:
The findings of the survey showed that overwhelming majority of the students are not even
aware of the activities and services provided by Conestoga Students Inc. (CSI). In fact only one
of out of every five students on an average are aware of the activities and services of CSI as per
the study (Helmers, 2013).
Awareness about election:
On an average only one out of two students are aware of students’ election but an overwhelming
majority out of the 88 students questioned in the study were unable to name the current student
representatives of CSI. In fact almost 75% of the students were unable to give the name of the
current president of CSI. In addition 90% of the student questioned do not know the name of any
other representative of CSI (MD et al., 2016).
Interest to vote in students’ election:

4
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
A very poor reflection of the students’ attitude towards the students’ election is the fact that 61
out of 88 students showed no interest in voting in the election. Also majority of the students
never voted in any CSI election (Notzer & Abramovitz, 2010).
No assistance sought from CSI:
Out of the 88 students questioned in the study an overwhelming majority of 65% students have
never sought any advice from CSI.
Reasons for lack of awareness among the students explained:
Mostly have no knowledge about the students’ representatives.
Along with the college activities hardly any students have the knowledge of different services of
college to which they have the right. As a result most students are also unaware of their biggest
right to vote in the election of the students’ union in the college (Poli, 2016).
Students are mostly unaware of students’ election:
It is quite surprising to find out from the study that there was hardly any students who were
aware different activities in Conestoga as a results they were also not quite aware of their rights
to elect their representatives in the college.
Students are barely interested in students’ election in the college:
The students are barely interested in the voting process of the college. It is mainly due to the lack
of knowledge of the students to understand the voting rights and other rights to receive different
services from the college.
Very small number of students have been benefitted from the services of the College:

5
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
The financial reports of the college for last five years have been evaluated to check the amount
of money spent by the college on the welfare activities for the benefits of the student. To the
utter surprise of the researchers it was quite clear to see that despite number of initiatives by
taken by Conestoga to enhance the satisfaction of the students (Notzer & Abramovitz, 2010).
The diagram below will help in understanding the level of awareness about different activities of
CSI and student elections in CSI.
The pie chart below shows the proportion of total students aware of CSI activities and the
proportion of total students are unaware of CSI activities.
The red portion of the pie chart indicative of the number of students who are absolutely unaware
of CSI activities. The unawareness of the students about CSI activities is a huge reason that
contributes to the lack of interest in the student about the elections of CSI. 70 out of 88 students
question in the research said they have no idea about activities and service of CSI. Thus, it’s a
very telling stat which shows the lack of communication between the students and the college
administration (Sychterz, Schill & Verspagen, 2014).

6
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
The pie chart below shows the results of response from the students of Conestoga. One of the
things that have been observed from the study is the lack of knowledge of the students about
various activities and services in the college. The pie chart below shows that only 50% of the
students are aware of students’ election whereas other 50% of the students are not aware of the
election (Warren, 2017).
Though its seems fair that at-least 45 out of 88 students are aware of the students’ election in the
college but the result showed in the chart below will change the perception about the students’
knowledge about the representatives elected by the students for the student by following the
democratic process of election.

7
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Only 22 students out of 88 students know the name of the president of CSI means the remaining
66 students do not know the name of the president. This definitely shows the huge gap between
the college activities, services and the students’ knowledge.
However, leaving the above observations aside the most surprising rather unpleasantly surprising
is the complete lack of interest on the part of the students to vote in the students’ election in the
college. As can be seen in the pie chart below that the red portion of the chart is significantly
larger than the blue portion. Red portion indicates the total portion of student who have no
interest in voting in the CSI election (Sychterz, Schill & Verspagen, 2017).

8
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
61 out of 88 students question replied they have never voted in the students’ election whereas
only 27 students have voted at-least once in the elections of students’ representative in the
college.
Out of the 88 students only 31 students have voted in the election whereas 57 have stayed away
from voting.

9
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Conclusion:
It is clear from the above document that there is a huge communication gap between the CSI and
the students as a result the students are mostly unaware of different activities and services of the
students. The lack of information is the most telling factor that has contributed in rendering the
students’ election in the college almost valueless for majority of the students. Considering the
huge students’ base both direct and distance this is a definitely a not positive advertisement for
the college and its operations.
Recommendations:
In order to ensure that the students of Conestoga take interest in students’ election and
other important activities of CSI the college administration must ensure there is effective
communication between the college and the students. This will help the students to have specific
knowledge of different services and activities of CSI to actively participate in the affairs of CSI
including election. Thus, an effective mechanism between students and the college shall be
devised to increase awareness of the students to encourage them to participate in different
activities and services of the college.

10
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
References:
Bracken, S. (2017). The importance of language, context, and communication as components of
successful partnership. New Directions For Community Colleges, 2007(139), 41-47. doi:
10.1002/cc.291
Helmers, M. (2013). Writing Students: Composition Testimonials and Representations of
Students. College Composition And Communication, 46(3), 460. doi: 10.2307/358729
MD, D., Hawsawi, A., Alduraibi, S., Alkhelaif, M., Altartouri, M., & Alhwsawi, E. et al. (2016).
Stress-related conditions among female students in Almaarefa Colleges,Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia. International Journal Of Advanced Research, 4(9), 1097-1101. doi:
10.21474/ijar01/1588
Notzer, N., & Abramovitz, R. (2010). Faculty-development activity to promote effective
communication between instructors and students. The Clinical Teacher, 7(2), 121-125. doi:
10.1111/j.1743-498x.2010.00340.x
Poli, D. (2016). Strategies for the Promotion of Effective Communication between Teachers and
Students. International Journal Of Science And Research (IJSR), 5(6), 1757-1761. doi:
10.21275/v5i6.nov164651
Sychterz, A., Schill, T., & Verspagen, B. (2014). Monitoring Performance of Low Impact
Development Measures Implemented at the Conestoga College South Campus. Journal Of
Water Management Modeling, 2(3), 12-21. doi: 10.14796/jwmm.c371

11
PROFESSIONAL READING AND WRITING
Sychterz, A., Schill, T., & Verspagen, B. (2017). Monitoring Performance of Low Impact
Development Measures Implemented at the Conestoga College South Campus. Journal Of
Water Management Modeling, 27(17), 21-38. doi: 10.14796/jwmm.c371
Warren, E. (2017). Reaching students: Communication from the community colleges. New
Directions For Community Colleges, 2017(63), 61-67. doi: 10.1002/cc.36819886308