Doug Schwartz, associate vice president of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute and director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, was on hand to address the students. Provost Debra Liebowitz and Dean of the School of Business Holly Raider also attended.

Chowdhury is optimistic that students gained meaningful knowledge and experience from the event.

“I hope students acquired a hands-on experience for thinking critically in terms of the question critiquing and data analyses and interpretation involved in the task,” said Chowdhury. “I also hope it was a good experience for the students to understand how market research students and political science students integrated their different perspectives with the same task.”

Political science major Jensen Wilson ’22, presented a poster demonstrating perceptions of the decline of American democracy. He is grateful for the new knowledge he acquired from this experience.

“I believe that working with the Quinnipiac University Poll was beneficial to my education as I plan to go to graduate school to study political management," said Wilson. "Polling is an important aspect of political campaigning and I believe that I can utilize the skills and knowledge I learned through this experience to be successful in my future career and educational endeavors."

While this event was extremely useful for political science majors, media studies major Max Kaplan ’24 was able to enhance his Quinnipiac education through participating in the event.

“Working the poll helped give me a lot of insight into what marketers use for data to make their marketing decisions which was a great enhancement of my educational experience,” said Kaplan.

Students having access to the poll is an experience not many institutions offer. McLean explained the true value of being able to incorporate an event like this into his curriculum.

“Very few universities or colleges are able to provide students with this kind of access to the inner workings of public opinion survey work,” said McLean. “Being aware of week to week polling on issues and officials adds a current events focus that can sometimes lead to fascinating discussions."