Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005240515
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Geoff Seamans Associate Editor
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The statewide telephone poll was conducted for VMI's private fund-raising arm by The Wirthlin Group of McLean.
In the foundation's eyes, the poll showed that most Virginians disagree with the U.S. Justice Department contention that the admissions policy constitutes sex discrimination.
But the poll showed no such thing.
At most, the poll showed that a slight majority (52 percent) of adult Virginians favor retaining the males-only policy, and even that is open to serious doubts. The poll mainly seems a textbook case of how to get the answers you want by how you ask the questions.
When asked whether "you favor allowing VMI to keep its status as a male-only institution or do you favor allowing women to enroll at VMI," 52 percent of those surveyed said "yes" and 44 percent said "no."
Taken at face value, this may be evidence of a small but significant shift in public sentiment since earlier polls were conducted by organizations unconnected with VMI.
But though the question by itself is worded in reasonably straightforward fashion, it came on the heels of a question loaded in favor of the men-only side of the debate.
It was the preceding question that yielded the answer highlighted in the foundation's news release: Some 66 percent of those surveyed disagreed that the VMI policy is sex discrimination, while only 28 percent agreed.
But not only was the question slanted in its wording, it also omitted a key fact.
In putatively summarizing Justice's argument, for example, the question informed poll respondents that Justice has "ordered" (not precisely accurate, and in any event more perjorative than the neutral "told") VMI to accept women.
In putatively summarizing Virginia's defense, respondents were informed that Virginia believes Justice's suit is "an attack on" (rather than the more neutral "challenge to") higher education in the state.
It is of such material, trivial on its surface, that questionable poll results are spun.
Even worse, the framing of the question may well have led many respondents to an erroneous conclusion: that among Virginia's state-supported colleges are some which are for women only.
At the beginning of the question, respondents were informed that VMI is state-supported. Later, they were informed that Virginia believes it is defending the state's "choice of all-male, all-female and co-ed institutions."
Nowhere, however, were they informed that none of those all-female colleges are public institutions.
In deciding the outcome of the legal case, that fact may or may not prove key. But surely it is a central consideration in the court of public opinion.
With a question so flawed, it is less than surprising that those surveyed agreed by a margin of more than 2-1 with Virginia's argument that the issue is one of choice, not discrimination.
The real surprise is that, even after the propaganda dose, 44 percent still thought women should be allowed to enroll at VMI.
by CNB