Residence Halls Association surveys which television stations they prefer

The IU Residence Halls Association conducted a survey to see whether students living in on-campus housing wanted to change the television channels currently offered in the residence halls.

The survey, which was originally scheduled to run from Oct. 6 to 21, was extended until Oct. 27 in an effort to increase student participation, said Sasha Bannister, vice president of student affairs for RHA.

“I was not happy with the current channels so I assumed others felt the same way,” she said.

Bannister said she proposed the change to the association and other members were
receptive.

“I realized there was definitely a need for change, and we conducted a survey to get everyone’s opinion,” she said.

The dorms currently receive 36 channels, and RHA members are hoping to switch out four to seven of the channels, Bannister said.

“From the responses, people definitely were willing to give up the news channels for
entertainment channels,” she said.

“There was an initial survey to gauge people’s interests, and there were seven channels that were most requested to have.”

The new channels proposed in the original survey included Food Network, E!, Bravo, ABC Family, Travel Channel, Lifetime and Nickelodeon.

The channels that would be removed are WGN, C-SPAN 2, CNN 2, WHMB Indianapolis, mtvU, WNDY Indianapolis and Cartoon Network.

“We are looking to get more child- and family-friendly programming,” Bannister said, commenting on the mostly news channels that would be replaced.

Freshman Abby Wiegand, who currently lives in McNutt Quad, said she would definitely watch the television in her room more often with the new channels.

“With the channels that we have now, we don’t watch TV that much because no one wants to watch channels like CNN and C-SPAN,” she said.

Because the survey only received 1,530 responses, instead of the 2,500 goal, RHA is now hoping to implement the changes by the end of second semester this year or by fall 2011, Bannister said.

The survey was open to all on-campus residents and was available online on the RHA website, Bannister said.

Despite falling short of the goal, Bannister said the survey went well.

“We had great participation. Many were unaware of the survey and how easy it is to give their opinion. There was a lot of publicity, but there could always be more,” Bannister said.

“We will try harder next time to get more people. We want to encourage the increase in participation from the resident assistants who have direct access to so many residents.”

RHA President Katie Lambert said surveys are effective but the association will continue to use other social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and its website, to vocalize proposed channel changes as well.

“I think we are going to use surveys in the future but also utilize the other tools,” Lambert said.

“I think we have to encourage people that they have the opportunity to voice their opinion and take advantage of these opportunities.”